Willingham Spring Baptist Church

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Willingham Spring Baptist Church, out in Bell County. Now settle in, because this one's got roots. It was 1911 when Willingham Springs Baptist Church first came together, and it didn't happen by accident.

Brother Cullam, pastor over at Prairie Dell Methodist Church, lent his hand to get things organized. A local farmer by the name of Wilson Willingham deeded the very property where this church would stand. Land given, community willing, the thing just needed to get built.

And oral history, which is sometimes the truest history of all, tells us that the first nail in that new church building was driven by Hanna Elizabeth Kidd Myers. Folks called her Grandma. You get the feeling she didn't wait around for someone else to start.

From there, the neighbors showed up in force. Jim and Bennie Brooks. John and Zola Kidd Lankford.

Mart and Minnie Brinegar Van Dyke. H. L. and Clemie Kidd Thomas.

Author and Eula Housewright. These were farming families, people who knew what it meant to work something into existence from bare ground up. They built that structure together, and in 1914 they finished it.

And right away it did double duty, serving as a community schoolhouse right alongside its church work, all the way through 1937. Now, 1941 is when the church closed. Just, closed.

No fanfare in the record. But here's the part worth noticing: it came back. In the early 1950s, somebody revitalized it.

And then again in the 1990s, somebody did it once more. Grandma Kidd Myers drove that first nail. Turns out the people of this community have been driving nails ever since.

What the marker says

Willingham Springs Baptist Church was organized in 1911 with the aid of Brother Cullam, pastor of Prairie Dell Methodist Church. Local farmer Wilson Willingham deeded property on this site. Oral history relates that Hanna Elizabeth "Grandma" Kidd Myers drove the first nail in the new church building. Area farmers Jim and Bennie Brooks, John and Zola Kidd Lankford, Mart and Minnie Brinegar Van Dyke, H. L. and Clemie Kidd Thomas, and Author and Eula Housewright helped build the structure, which was completed in 1914 and also served as a community schoolhouse until 1937. The church was closed in 1941, but was revitalized in the early 1950s and again in the 1990s. (1998)