Pearl Baptist Church

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm passing it right along to you. Way out in Coryell County, there's a church with a story that's moved around, changed names, and outlasted just about everything around it. It all started in 1884, when a man named Rev.

E. Berry, a pioneer missionary and preacher working that whole stretch of country, organized a congregation in the Bee House community, about four miles to the west of where the church stands today. They called it the Bee House Missionary Baptist Church.

Now, they didn't have a proper church building right off. They held their worship services in the Masonic lodge hall, which also happened to serve as the community schoolhouse. One room doing the work of three, as the frontier had a way of demanding.

Then came 1889. The congregation picked up and relocated to a new site, and with the move came a new name: Mt. Olive Missionary Baptist Church.

The settlement around them was known as Wayback at the time. Whether that name suited the place or not, it was later renamed Pearl, and the church would eventually take that name too. A local man, early settler and rancher Charles T.

Karnes, sold three acres of his property to the congregation so they could build their first real sanctuary at the new site. That small frame structure stood and served the congregation through worship services all the way until 1949. For years, the congregation gathered on the fourth Sunday of each month, and that schedule held until 1957, when the church finally secured its first full-time pastor.

But there's one more piece to this picture, and it might be the most evocative of all. Around 1908, a tabernacle was built right on the boundary line between the Baptist church property and the Methodist church property next door. Right on the line, shared ground, and it became the site of many revivals over the years.

Before that tabernacle went up, those summer revival meetings were held out under brush arbors, open to the sky and whatever weather Texas felt like sending. The Pearl Baptist Church has been at this for over a century now, and the marker says it plainly: it has played a significant role in the area's history. Started in a schoolhouse, moved across the countryside, changed its name twice, and kept right on meeting.

Some things in Texas just don't quit.

What the marker says

This church was organized in 1884 under the guidance of the Rev. E. Berry, a pioneer area missionary and preacher. Originally located in the Bee House community (4 mi. W), it was first known as the Bee House Missionary Baptist Church. Early worship services were held in the Masonic lodge hall that also served as the community schoolhouse. When the church relocated here in 1889, the congregational name was changed to Mt. Olive Missionary Baptist Church. The surrounding settlement was then known as Wayback, but later renamed Pearl. Early settler and rancher Charles T. Karnes sold three acres of his property to the church for their first sanctuary at this site. The small frame structure was used for worship services until 1949. The congregation met for church services on the fourth Sunday of each month until 1957, when its first full time pastor was secured. A tabernacle, built about 1908 on the boundary line between the Baptist and Methodist Church properties, has been the site of many revivals. Summer brush arbor meetings were held before construction of the tabernacle. For over a century the Pearl Baptist Church has played a significant role in the area's history. (1985)