DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Gray Community Church. Now settle in, because this is a story about a town that up and moved — and the one stubborn, faithful thing it left behind. Settlers put down roots in Gray, Beaver County, Oklahoma, in the nineteen hundreds.
Out on that open country, a congregation needed a home, and in January of 1915, Reverend J. W. Duff of Enid, Oklahoma, organized a church and became its first minister.
Lumber came rolling in from Liberal, Kansas. The ladies aid society got to work raising funds — bought an organ, bought pews, bought carpeting. They were building something meant to last.
And then came the revivals, and a dedication on October the third, 1915, and what had started as eleven members swelled to a hundred and twenty-two. Eleven to a hundred and twenty-two. That's not a congregation growing — that's a congregation catching fire.
Now here's where the ground shifts under everybody's feet. The Santa Fe Railway built between Gray and Ochiltree, Texas in 1919, and in doing so, it created Perryton. When a railroad decides where it's going, towns tend to follow.
Most of the houses and buildings in Gray were loaded up and moved — by horse and mule teams, by steam tractors — hauled south to the new townsite. The whole town picked itself up and walked away. Almost the whole town.
The church stayed. For decades, that church stood out there, a viable congregation, and an attraction for travelers passing through. And at night, a blue neon cross cut through the dark, declaring that Jesus saves.
Just those two words glowing out across the Texas Panhandle flatlands. It must've been something to come upon. Well, nothing lasts forever in exactly the same place.
In 2002, the members decided the church would finally make that journey south. They moved it to Perryton — the very town the railroad had pulled everything toward, all those years before. It just took the church a little longer to decide it was ready.
What the marker says
Settlers established Gray, Beaver Co., Okla., in the 1900s. Rev. J. W. Duff of Enid, Okla., organized a church in Jan. 1915 and became the first minister. Lumber came from Liberal, Kan., and the ladies aid society raised funds to buy an organ, pews, and carpeting. Revivals and a dedication on Oct. 3, 1915, increased membership from 11 to 122. The Santa Fe Railway built between Gray and Ochiltree, Texas in 1919, creating Perryton. Most houses and buildings were moved by horse and mule teams or steam tractors south to the new townsite. The town’s only church remained and for decades was both a viable congregation and an attraction for travelers, with a blue neon cross declaring that “Jesus saves.” In 2002, members decided to move the church to Perryton.