Nolanville Encampment

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker at Nolanville has to say, and it's a story worth slowing down for. Five families. That's where it starts.

Five families, gathering under a brush arbor in 1889, deciding right then and there to form the Nolanville Church of Christ. Now a brush arbor is about as humble as a meeting place gets, just branches woven overhead to keep the sun off, dirt floor beneath your boots. But within a month, those five families had pooled their intentions and purchased land at this very site to build something permanent.

Something that would last. And last it did. That first meeting set off a chain of summer camp meetings, one after another, year after year, one hundred and six of them consecutive, not a single summer skipped, all of them dedicated to teaching, preaching, and fellowship.

Think about what it took to keep that streak alive. Every August, for ten days, people came. Not just local folks, mind you.

People traveled from as far as a hundred miles out, and at the peak of it, as many as a thousand people would gather here in Bell County. A thousand people, ten days, every August. Families brought their tents, set up camp, and cooked their own meals right there on the grounds.

It was a community unto itself, arriving with the summer heat and filling this place with voices and woodsmoke and scripture. Over time the site grew up around its people. Cabins came.

Running water. Electricity. The rough edges of that original brush arbor gave way to something that could hold a thousand souls in a little more comfort.

And the encampment became, as that marker puts it, a significant factor in the development of the Church of Christ in central Texas. Not a footnote. A factor.

Something that shaped the faith of a whole region, one August at a time. The last encampment was held in 1996. One hundred and six summers after that first gathering under woven branches, it came to a close.

But you don't get one hundred and six of anything without meaning it, and this place meant it from the very first day.

What the marker says

In 1889 five families met under a brush arbor to form the Nolanville Church of Christ and within a month had purchased land at this site on which to build a permanent church. That first meeting led to 106 consecutive summer camp meetings dedicated to teaching, preaching and fellowship. The Nolanville encampment drew as many as 1,000 people from a 100-mile radius for ten days each August and became a significant factor in the development of the Church of Christ in central Texas. Families camped in tents and cooked their own meals; the meeting site was modernized over time to provide cabins, running water and electricity. The last encampment was held in 1996. (2001)