Patton Baptist Church

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Way down in McLennan County, a congregation got its start back in 1872. They called themselves the Walnut Grove Baptist Church of Christ, and they set up a few miles south of where the church stands today.

Now, the details of those earliest worship services are a little hazy, even to history. The marker says they were thought to have been held in a school building, and that school building came to be because a man named Richard Simpson gave the land for it in 1878. Simpson, it turns out, was not a man who gave land just once.

In 1897 he gave land again, this time right at this very site, for a proper church building. But we're getting ahead of ourselves. Before that building ever went up, the congregation had already made a decision that would stick.

At a meeting in 1889, they changed the name. Walnut Grove Baptist Church of Christ became Patton Baptist Church, and Patton Baptist Church it has remained. For many years after that, this place became something more than just a Sunday morning stop.

Revivals, worship services, family reunions. Generation after generation finding their way back to the same patch of McLennan County ground. And here is the part that maybe lands quietest and hits hardest: the congregation still meets on a regular basis.

Still serves its community. Some stories don't end. They just keep going.

What the marker says

The Walnut Grove Baptist Church of Christ was organized in 1872 a few miles south of this site. Richard Simpson gave land for a public school in 1878, and early worship services were thought to have been held in the school building. At a meeting in 1889 the name of the congregation was changed to Patton Baptist Church. Simpson gave land at this site for a church building in 1897. For many years the church has been the site of revivals, worship services, and family reunions. The congregation meets on a regular basis and continues to serve its community.