Hayden Baptist Church

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Way out in Van Zandt County, there's a congregation with more than one name in its past, and a story that goes back further than most folks around here can remember. It starts in October of 1878.

That's when fourteen charter members gathered for an organizational meeting, led by a man named Dr. George D. Staton, who also took on the role of first pastor.

Fourteen people. That's it. That's your whole founding congregation.

But they meant business. They adopted a name, Myrtle Springs Baptist Church, and they agreed to meet monthly. Not weekly, not whenever the spirit moved them, monthly.

Steady and deliberate, like people who knew they were building something meant to last. Now, they didn't have a building yet. That came later, in 1889, when they finally put up a church of their own.

That structure served them well, served them for over a decade, right up until 1900. Then the meeting place shifted. The congregation moved to the Cow Prairie schoolhouse, which sat near this very site.

Four years after that move, the fellowship built a new sanctuary entirely, and with the new building came a new name: Hayden Baptist Church. A new name, a new home, but the same unbroken thread of faith running all the way back to those fourteen charter members in October of 1878. And here's the thing that lands this story square on its feet.

The marker doesn't say this church survived. It says it continues to serve the surrounding rural area. Present tense.

Still going. Some things you build in Van Zandt County, you build to stay.

What the marker says

The organizational meeting for this congregation was held in October 1878. Led by Dr. George D. Staton, who also served as first pastor, the fourteen charter members adopted the name Myrtle Springs Baptist Church and agreed to meet monthly. A church building, constructed in 1889, served the congregation until 1900, when the meeting place was moved to the Cow Prairie schoolhouse, which was located near this site. Four years later, the fellowship built a new sanctuary and adopted the name Hayden Baptist Church. The pioneer church continues to serve the surrounding rural area. (1985)