Leander Presbyterian Church

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll give it to you straight with a little Texas on the side. Way back in 1857, a preacher by the name of Reverend R. M.

Overstreet organized a congregation out in Williamson County. They called it Pleasant Hill Presbyterian Church, and they set it down in the town of Bagdad. Now, Bagdad.

That name alone ought to tell you this was a town with a certain confidence about its future. And for a good while, things hummed along just fine. Then came 1882.

The railroad came through the county, and it did not come through Bagdad. It bypassed the town entirely, and where the rails laid down, a brand new town called Leander sprang up instead. Now, a congregation has a choice in a moment like that.

You can dig in and watch the world roll past you on iron wheels, or you can put your faith in motion. These folks voted. They voted to move their congregation to Leander, to follow the living town rather than tend the fading one.

By 1884, they had a church building up and standing. The land it sat on belonged to a church member named Sarah J. Walker, and in 1895 she deeded that property over to the church trustees, making it official, making it permanent.

The name had changed too, from Pleasant Hill Presbyterian Church to Leander Presbyterian Church, a congregation that had already crossed one town's worth of history before most folks had finished settling in. And here is the part that lands quiet but lands hard: many descendants of those early members are still active in the life of that church today. The railroad moved the town.

The town moved the church. But the people, they stayed.

What the marker says

Organized in 1857 by the Rev. R. M. Overstreet, this church was originally known as Pleasant Hill Presbyterian Church and was located in the town of Bagdad. When the new railroad bypassed Bagdad in 1882 and the town of Leander was founded on the rail line, the church members voted to move their congregation to the new town. A church building was erected in 1884, on land belonging to church member Sarah J. Walker, who deeded the property to church trustees in 1895. Many descendants of early members remain active in the life of the church.