Medlan Chapel Primitive Baptist Church

Duane's take

The way the marker tells it, here's the story of Medlan Chapel Primitive Baptist Church in Young County. Built in 1882, out of native sandstone quarried one mile from the very site where it stands. Think about that for a second.

They didn't haul the stone from some distant county, didn't order it from a catalog. They pulled it right out of the earth nearby, and they burned lime rock to make the mortar that holds every course of that stone together. That building didn't just rise up out of the land.

In a very real sense, it is the land. Now the pews, those came from a bit further off. Hauled by ox wagon all the way from Sherman.

If you've ever crossed that stretch of Texas and wondered how long it takes on four legs and wooden wheels, well, those pews earned their place. Medlan Chapel stands as one of the earliest houses of worship in all of Young County, and it didn't get there by accident or by easy money. In 1888, the church and the land it sits on were donated, given outright, by A.B.

Medlan, known to folks around here as Uncle Archie, and his wife, Aunt Betty Medlan. They gave it. Just gave it.

Some folks leave a county a courthouse, some leave a fortune. Uncle Archie and Aunt Betty left their neighbors a place to gather, to worship, to hold each other up, built from the very ground beneath their feet. That's the kind of thing a county remembers.

What the marker says

Built 1882. Of native sandstone quarried one mile from site with lime rock burned for mortar. Pews hauled by ox wagon from Sherman. One of earliest houses of worship in Young County. Church and land donated by A.B. (Uncle Archie) and Aunt Betty Medlan, 1888. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1965