DUANE
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Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and here's how I'm gonna tell it to you. Out in the rural stretches of northeast Panola County, there's a church that's been holding things together for a long, long time. Shady Grove Baptist Church.
By 1880, it was already there, already open, already calling folks in from the surrounding countryside. And somebody had to stand up front and hold that congregation together. That somebody was the Reverend J.
R. Alexander, the first pastor. Now, when you hear "first pastor," you might picture a man who got things started and then moved on down the road.
Not Reverend Alexander. He stood at that pulpit, served that congregation, and kept on serving, all the way until 1907. That is a man who planted his boots and stayed put.
The church itself went through its own kind of growing. That original one-room wooden building, humble as they come, gave way to a second frame structure that pulled double duty as both a church and a school. The community needed more than one thing from it, and it delivered more than one thing.
Then came 1954, and Shady Grove got itself a new brick facility. Something built to last. Right next door, the Shady Grove Cemetery has been receiving the community's departed since at least 1892, keeping the generations close.
And through all of it, the worship, the education, the outreach, Shady Grove Baptist Church is still at it. Some things take root and just don't let go.
What the marker says
Established to serve the rural residents of northeast Panola County, Shady Grove Baptist Church was in existence by 1880. The first pastor, the Rev. J. R. Alexander, continued to serve the congregation until 1907. The original one-room wooden church structure was replaced by a second frame building used as a church and school. A new brick facility was built in 1954. The adjacent Shady Grove Cemetery contains burials from as early as 1892. Shady Grove Baptist Church continues to serve the community with worship, education, and outreach programs.