Perryville Baptist Church

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Way out in Wood County, Texas, five neighbors got together one June day in 1884. Just five people.

And what they set out to do was organize a church. They called it the County Line Missionary Baptist Church of Wood County, and they meant business. One month later, those same five, now carrying the title of charter members, sat down and made their first real decision as a congregation.

W. F. Bailey, J.

M. Richards, S. M.

Lindsey, Mrs. L. T.

Bailey, and Mrs. Martha Cartwright. Five names.

Five people who had enough faith, enough stubbornness, and enough neighborly spirit to build something from nothing. They chose a man named J. O.

Carnes as their first pastor, and the thing was underway. Now, they didn't have a church building yet. Not right away.

For several years, services were held in the local school building, which tells you something about the kind of practical, make-do determination these folks carried. The building would come in time. And it did.

Then came June of 1908, and the church received a new name: the Missionary Baptist Church of Christ at Perryville. The name shifted again in 1925, settling into what it's been called ever since, Perryville Baptist Church. Here's the part that makes you stop and think.

The descendants of those original five charter members, those same families that showed up on a June day in 1884, they're still there. Still active in that church. Some stories don't really end.

They just keep going, generation by generation, same as the congregation itself.

What the marker says

In June 1884 five neighbors gathered to organize the County Line Missionary Baptist Church of Wood County. One month later charter members W. F. Bailey, J. M. Richards, S. M. Lindsey, Mrs. L. T. Bailey, and Mrs. Martha Cartwright chose J. O. Carnes as their first pastor. Services were held in the local school building for several years, until a church building was erected. In June 1908 the church was called the Missionary Baptist Church of Christ at Perryville. The name became Perryville Baptist Church in 1925. Descendants of charter members remain active in the church. (1986)