Union Hill Missionary 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 Bastrop County, there's a piece of ground that holds more history than most folks ever stop long enough to notice. According to local tradition, this very site was used by area slaves for gathering purposes.

Think on that for a moment. Before there was a church, before there was a name above the door, people found their way to this spot and held onto something together. That's the foundation everything else was built on.

Then came 1864. The Civil War still grinding, the world uncertain as a spring storm, and yet six people stood up and said, we are going to organize a church. Silvie Story, William Hill, Martha Young, Paulie Johnson, Grant McBride, and Martha J.

Hill, those are the names the marker gives us, and those names deserve to be spoken out loud. They organized Union Hill Missionary Baptist Church that year, with the help of the Reverend Joshua Brice. Early baptisms took place in the Colorado River.

You want to talk about sacred ground, there it is, the river itself doing the work. By 1900 the congregation had grown to about twenty members. Not a multitude, but a community, and a community is exactly what they were building.

Then in the early 1900s, the C. M. Rogers family deeded nine acres to the church.

Nine acres to grow on, nine acres to be permanent, nine acres that said this is not going anywhere. And it didn't. In 1976 an educational facility was built.

In 1988 a new sanctuary went up. From a gathering place in secret, to a river baptism, to nine acres, to a sanctuary standing in 1988, that is not just a church history. That is a people refusing, generation after generation, to let go of each other.

And according to this marker, the congregation continues to provide worship and educational services for the community. Still there. Still gathering.

Just like they always have.

What the marker says

According to local tradition this site was used by area slaves for gathering purposes. Silvie Story, William Hill, Martha Young, Paulie Johnson, Grant McBride, and Martha J. Hill organized this church in 1864 with the help of the Rev. Joshua Brice. Early baptisms took place in the Colorado River. By 1900 the congregation consisted of about 20 members. The C. M. Rogers family deeded 9 acres to the church in the early 1900s. An educational facility was built in 1976 and a new sanctuary in 1988. The congregation continues to provide worship and educational services for the community. (1995)