DUANE
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Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm gonna pass it along just the same. Eight settlers out in Trinity County got together in 1860 and started something. Didn't have much, maybe, but they had enough conviction between them to found the Salem Baptist Church, with Elder R.A.
Clifton stepping up as the very first pastor. Now, eight people and a name is a beginning, and beginnings have a way of growing into something bigger than anybody planned. Six years on, in 1866, a man named Daniel Dailey laid out a whole town called Pennington on that land.
And when a town takes shape around you, well, the congregation took note. They bought this very land, left the old church house near the cemetery behind, and erected a new structure right here. Then in 1869, at the conference, they made it official.
The name changed to Pennington Baptist Church, tied now to the town growing up around it. That third building came along in 1913, a sign that the congregation had kept adding to itself all those decades. And 1947 brought another kind of milestone.
That's when the church began providing full-time services, under the pastorate of The Reverend E.P. Coe. Full-time.
After all those years of building and naming and moving and rebuilding, somebody was there every day. Then in 1955, they dedicated the fourth building. Four buildings.
One congregation. Started by eight settlers with a name and a faith, and still standing right here in Pennington.
What the marker says
In 1860 eight settlers began the Salem Baptist Church. Elder R.A. Clifton served as the first pastor. After landowner Daniel Dailey laid out Pennington in 1866, the congregation bought this land. They moved from the original church house near the cemetery and erected a structure. The name changed at the conference in 1869 to "Pennington Baptist Church". A third building was completed in 1913. The church began in 1947 providing full-time services under the pastorate of The Rev. E.P. Coe. In 1955 the fourth building was dedicated.