Glidden Baptist Church

Duane's take

Here's the story as the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. You're rolling through Colorado County now, and the ground around here has got some history soaked right into it. We're talking about the Glidden Baptist Church, and the way this congregation came to be is the kind of story that starts small and grows into something that matters.

It began, best as anyone can mark it, as early as 1895. A community church, meeting in a railroad town called Glidden. No grand sanctuary, no steeple catching the light.

Just people gathering, the way people do when they need something to hold onto. Now, a community church and a formally organized congregation are two different animals, and Glidden knew the difference. In 1906, the Glidden Missionary Baptist Church in Christ was formally organized.

That's the moment it got its name, its shape, its purpose set down proper. Then the following year, the members called their first pastor. His name was Oscar Ferrell.

Think about that word, called. They reached out and said, we want you, we need you, come lead us. And here's the detail that'll stay with you.

In those early years, when it came time for baptisms, they didn't wait on fine facilities. They went to the Colorado River. Or, and this is the part that sticks, they used the pits at the Railroad Roundhouse.

The same infrastructure that built that railroad town became, for a congregation finding its footing, a place of sacred ritual. The fellowship has gone by the Glidden Baptist Church in the years since, and the marker makes clear it has played an important role in the community's growth and development. Started in a railroad town, baptized in a river and a roundhouse, and still standing.

That's not a small thing.

What the marker says

This congregation grew out of a community church that began meeting in the railroad town of Glidden as early as 1895. In 1906 the Glidden Missionary Baptist Church in Christ was formally organized. Members of the church called their first pastor, Oscar Ferrell, the following year. During the early years, baptisms were held in the Colorado River or in the pits at the Railroad Roundhouse. The Glidden Baptist Church, as the fellowship now is known, has played an important role in the community's growth and development.