Liberty Baptist Church

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Liberty Baptist Church out in Collin County. Now, every good story needs a starting place, and this one starts somewhere called Lonesome House. That's not a name somebody dreamed up to sound poetic; that was the honest-to-goodness name folks gave to Henry Cook's remote log cabin.

Remote enough, lonely enough, that the name just fit. And yet, here's the thing about Lonesome House: it wasn't always lonely. Settlers gathered there for worship, which tells you something right there about the kind of people who put down roots in this part of Texas.

They didn't wait for a church to come to them. They made do with what they had. On February the sixteenth, 1850, Liberty Baptist Church was formally organized.

Just like that, out of a log cabin in the middle of nowhere, a congregation was born. Elder Eli Witt stepped up as the first pastor and served that fellowship all the way through 1856. Six years of leading a congregation that was still finding its footing on the Texas frontier.

In time, the congregation built themselves a proper log meetinghouse, and they built it on land belonging to a man named J.F. Purcell. Then came 1885, and the congregation raised a new white frame structure; a real step up from those early log-cabin days.

The year after that, Purcell deeded the one-acre tract to the fellowship outright. The land was theirs. Then in 1976, a brick structure went up on that same ground, the one standing today.

Nearly a century and a quarter after those settlers crowded into Lonesome House, the congregation was still there, still worshipping, still going. And that, right there, is the whole point: Liberty Baptist Church holds the distinction of being the oldest Baptist congregation in continuous service in all of Collin County. Started in a cabin called Lonesome House, and never once stopped.

What the marker says

Settlers met for worship in Henry Cook's remote log cabin known as "Lonesome House". Liberty Baptist Church was formed on Feb. 16, 1850. Elder Eli Witt served until 1856 as the first pastor. In a few years the congregation built a log meetinghouse on this land which belonged to J.F. Purcell. In 1885 a new white frame structure was erected. The following year Purcell deeded this one-acre tract to the fellowship. This brick structure was erected in 1976. Liberty Baptist Church is the oldest Baptist congregation in continuous service in Collin county. (1979)