Pine Prairie Free Will Baptist Church and Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Pine Prairie Free Will Baptist Church and Cemetery, up north of Huntsville in Walker County. Now settle in, because this story starts the way most good Texas stories do: with land, and the people stubborn enough to build something on it. Back in the 1850s, settlers began purchasing land in the Thomas Stephens Grant and the William Burditt Survey, and a community took shape.

They called it Pine Prairie. For decades, folks put down roots, raised families, and yes, buried their dead, right there on that ground, before any church or school was ever officially organized on the site. The graves of Kuber Kisser, a fellow known only as Sweed Smith, and the infant daughter of Rudolph and Mary Countz, who passed in 1902, all predate the formal donation of the land.

The community was already living, and losing, before the paperwork ever caught up. That paperwork came in 1907, when Robert H. Cabiness, D.D.

Eastham, and Adolphus Henry and Idella Sanford Cansler, the Tarbutton side of that family, donated land to Walker County for school and church purposes. Walker County, in turn, donated that land to the Pine Prairie Free Will Baptist Church. A generous chain of giving, one hand passing to the next.

But here is where the story gets its legs. By 1912, the people of Pine Prairie had grown tired of that eight to ten mile journey, by horse or wagon, to Falba or Crabbs Prairie, every single Sunday, just to worship. Eight to ten miles of ruts and weather and effort, week after week.

So a man named Louis P. Jordy started talking to ministers in the area, hunting for someone willing to bring church a little closer to home. And the someone he found was an eighteen-year-old reverend named J.L.

Bounds. Eighteen years old. Just think on that a moment.

The community needed a preacher, and what showed up was a young man barely old enough to shave. But Reverend Bounds agreed to hold a revival at the Pine Prairie school, and apparently that young man could preach, because at the close of that revival, on August 13, 1912, the Pine Prairie Free Will Baptist Church organized. Thirteen charter members, standing up and saying yes.

And they called Reverend George Robinson to serve as their first pastor. For a good while, they made do with the schoolhouse for worship. Then in 1931, a new school was built off the property, and the church used that building until 1937, when the congregation finally constructed their first dedicated church building.

Nearly a quarter century of worshipping in a schoolhouse, making it holy by showing up. The cemetery grew alongside the congregation. Today it holds more than four hundred burials, and among them are veterans of the Civil War, World War One, World War Two, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War.

Generations of people who answered a call of one kind or another. The church and the community maintain that ground, adding fencing and brick pillars over the years, and neighbors have donated additional land adjoining the site to give it room to endure. And every year, since the 1940s, Pine Prairie holds a homecoming reunion.

On milestone dates, the celebrations grow a little bigger, drawing back descendants and friends of those early settlers, all of them coming to remember where they came from. That is Pine Prairie's gift to itself: the knowledge that what a community builds together, if they tend it faithfully, will still be standing when the grandchildren come looking.

What the marker says

Located north of Huntsville, the community of Pine Prairie formed in the 1850s when settlers purchased land in the Thomas Stephens Grant and William Burditt Survey. In 1907, Robert H. Cabiness, D.D. Eastham, and Adolphus Henry and Idella Sanford (Tarbutton) Cansler donated land to Walker County for school and church purposes. Subsequently, Walker County donated the land to the Pine Prairie Free Will Baptist Church. By 1912, community members grew tired of the eight- to ten-mile journey by horse or wagon to Falba or Crabbs Prairie for worship services on Sundays. Mr. Louis P. Jordy began talking to ministers in the area and 18-year-old Reverend J.L. Bounds agreed to hold a revival at the school in Pine Prairie. At the close of the revival, on August 13, 1912, the Pine Prairie Free Will Baptist Church organized with 13 charter members and the Rev. George Robinson as their first pastor. A small schoolhouse was used for church service until 1931, when a new school was built off this property, which was used by the church until 1937, when the first church was constructed. There are burials on the school and church site that predate the official donation of the land, including the graves of Kuber Kisser, "Sweed" Smith, and the infant daughter (d. 1902) of Rudolph and Mary Countz. The cemetery now contains more than 400 burials including veterans from the Civil War, WWI, WWII, Korean War and Vietnam War. The church and community maintain the cemetery, having added fencing and brick pillars over the years. Community members have donated additional land adjoining the site of the church and cemetery. Annual homecoming reunions have been held at the church since the 1940s with special celebrations on milestone dates, bringing back descendants and friends of early settlers to remember the heritage of the Pine Prairie Community.