DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Before there were churches dotting the landscape out here in Tarrant County, folks who wanted to worship had to do it the old-fashioned way — gathering out under the open sky at camp meetings on Village Creek. No steeple, no pew, no roof between you and the Almighty.
Just the creek, the trees, and whoever showed up. Now, that kind of arrangement will only hold a community so long before somebody decides it's time to do this proper. And so it was that on February the fifth, 1882, ten local residents sat down together with a purpose.
Ten people. That's all it takes sometimes — just ten people who mean it. They met to organize what would become the Tate Springs Baptist Church, with elders M.T.
Walker and D.B. Brown presiding over the whole proceeding. They needed a place to meet, and a man named E.C.
Tate donated land about a mile to the east, where the Joplin Schoolhouse stood. That schoolhouse became their first chapel — a borrowed space, humble as they come, but it was theirs. The church worshipped there until 1895, when it picked up and moved to this very site, and from that point on it became the beating heart of the rural settlement around it.
A leader in community activities, it grew alongside the people who called this place home. Then came the 1970s, and with nearby urban development pressing in on all sides, Tate Springs Baptist Church experienced rapid growth. What began with ten people at a meeting on a February morning had grown into something the whole surrounding countryside could feel.
Ten people. That's how it starts.
What the marker says
Prior to the formation of area churches, worship services were conducted at camp meetings on Village Creek. On Feb. 5, 1882, ten local residents met to organize the Tate Springs Baptist Church. Presiding over the meeting were elders M.T. Walker and D.B. Brown. The Joplin Schoolhouse (1 mi. E), located on land donated by E.C. Tate, served as the first chapel. The church moved to this site in 1895 and became the center of the rural settlement. A leader in community activities, Tate Springs Baptist Church experienced rapid growth in the 1970s as a result of nearby urban development. (1981)