Published: October 03, 2008 10:04 am         

First Baptist Church of Palo Pinto to mark 151st anniversary Oct. 19

First of two parts.

Special to the Index
PALO PINTO – The public is invited to join First Baptist Church of Palo Pinto for its 151st anniversary celebration on Sunday, Oct. 19.

It will begin in the Palo Pinto city park at 11 a.m. with morning worship services. Dinner-on-the-grounds will follow at 12:30 p.m. The remainder of the afternoon will be filled with music and history presentations.

In mid-afternoon, events will move from the park to the church, with a re-enactment of the 1888 arrival of the bell and for dedication of the new historical marker and other events. The day will be topped off by a concert at 4 p.m. by Crimson River.

You are asked to bring a covered dish if you come for lunch, or a dessert if you come between 2 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. You are also encouraged to wear attire of the 1800s if possible.

150+1
Golconda began with some tents erected in a small valley in the Palo Pinto Mountains. Quickly a town began to appear in the form of small, log homes scattered across the valley. By 1857 the county of Palo Pinto was organized and Golconda, later changed to Palo Pinto Town, was named as its county seat.

A small frame courthouse was built and merchandise stores, saloons and livery stables began to gather around the town square. Violent clashes between Native American tribes and settlers were an ever-present danger. Settlers had left their homes and their spiritual roots behind to forge a new life for themselves and their families. Some came for serious betterment of their circumstances while others came for adventure, excitement and even downright chicanery.

Saloons flourished while struggling lawmen found themselves fighting for control of the disruptive elements of this raw frontier town. In the midst of this turmoil some settlers recognized the need for a strong religious influence and were endeavoring to gather together those of like mind to establish churches. Soon three denominations – Methodists, Baptists and those of the Christian church – were meeting in what would be called home churches today, or meeting in the school house or sharing the first church building.

Because of the lack of funds and available ministers on the frontier, it was customary for each church group to have “preaching” only once a month. But because of the often lonely and austere life led by the frontier men and women, those monthly meetings were eagerly anticipated. We know from several sources that there were three, and finally four, denominations in the town, so that made three or four services per month. We also know folks didn’t wait for their own preaching, but met with whoever was having services that particular week.

In his diary, Johathan Hamilton Baker reports attending whatever church service was being held on Sunday unless he was ill or out of town or unless there were current Indian sightings.

George Slaughter, frontier missionary, cattleman and “saddlebag doctor,” arrived on the scene in 1857 eager to establish churches and to reach people for God’s kingdom. In speaking with Rufus C. Burleson in 1852, Slaughter said, “Bro Burleson, I am going to the far west, and while you are rounding up sinners and Baptists in the great cities and colleges, I will be rounding up cattle and stray Baptists and sinners on the frontier.”

Slaughter began his mission efforts and, with the formation of the Brazos River Baptist Association in 1858, the Baptist Church of Palo Pinto joined as an established church with at least 27 members. From that time until today, Baptist work has continued in the little west Texas town of Palo Pinto.

When hostilities with the Indians broke out in earnest on a cold, rainy, foggy day in December 1858, many folks left Palo Pinto, headed for safer environs. As hostilities grew day after day and the back ends of wagons could be seen leaving the county, G.W. Slaughter found himself the only Baptist pastor left on this beautiful piece of frontier. Notwithstanding the busy trail east, many did stay on the frontier to fight for their new beginnings and Slaughter just could not bring himself to leave these people with no pastor. He later reported, “I prayed and wept much over it in prayer, believing that God would protect me and my family and bless my labors.”

Frontier churches and their pastors saw and met the needs of their people, however rough the job might have been. Elder Slaughter proved to be equal to the task and, to understand this early frontier church, one has only to look at the lifestyle of its pastor.

“I started on my pony to my meetings with my Bible, hymn book, blanket, cup and coffee-pot, rifle, six-shooter, stake-rope; often sleeping alone at night on the prairie on my blanket, guarding my pony, expecting to be attacked before daylight.”

Upon arrival at the designated meeting site under a tree or brush arbor, or maybe even a building, the pistol and rifle stayed by Slaughter’s side during services. But this was no different to the men of his congregation.

“Usually the men brought their knives, rifles, and pistols into the church building and stacked the rifles in a corner, but kept side-arms on their person.”

By showing his strength and determination to get the job done and to minister to his flock, Slaughter earned their respect. That, however, did not protect him from occasional good-natured harassment.

“One Sunday morning when the reverend was preaching a warm and lengthy sermon under a brush arbor [,] some cowboys ran a small bunch of mavericks down on the meeting place. Frightened, the animals dashed through the aisle and among the benches. The incident did not particularly excite Reverend Slaughter but he did not forget the boys in his closing prayer. He called upon the Lord ‘to hold them over the fires of hell, take them by their neck, let them dangle over the fiery furnace but Oh, Lord, don’t let them drop.’”

The Baptist church in Palo Pinto held on through Indian wars, the Civil War and the rebuilding of the frontier after destruction from both. Members continued to meet under brush arbors, in homes, and in shared church buildings until they could build their own. During this time, while Bro. Slaughter was ministering to Palo Pinto, he was starting churches all over the area, including one in his own neighborhood of Slaughter Valley in 1877.

About Slaughter, John Henry Brown states: “It would be impossible to overrate his usefulness during those long years, when the citizens of the northwest counties were practically isolated from the world and dependent on each other for comfort and aid in times of extremity … he gave freely of his time and money to the poor of his community.”

In 1886 the church building in Slaughter Valley, about 5-1/2 miles north of Palo Pinto, was blown away in a tornado. The years of 1886-87 were the years Henry Belding referred to when saying, “nothing much raised but a dust.”

Willie Henrietta Bradford Cantrell’s recollections of the severe drought were described as “a vivid memory of the privation, hunger, and hardships. She said the cow feed was all used, there was no grass in the pastures and the cows quit giving milk, the chickens quit laying eggs, almost all the water holes in the creeks were dried up, nothing was planted in the fields because it would not germinate.”

In this time of privation the small congregation of Slaughter Valley would have had to minister to themselves as well as to their neighbors. They must have been holding on by a thread.

For some reason, probably because of the severe conditions, when their building was destroyed, the members of the Slaughter Valley Baptist Church decided to move into town. After constructing their new building in Palo Pinto – the second Baptist congregation in the small town – it was decided the best thing would seem to be the uniting of the two. Thus one unified church resulted from the merging of the two and the congregation agreed to meet in the new building constructed by the Slaughter Valley folks.

The earliest available Book of Minutes of the Baptist Church of Palo Pinto tells of the merging of the two congregations and the decision to call the new church the Baptist Church of Christ of Palo Pinto. Brethren J.G. Maddox, M.I. Garrett and R.M. Mason were received and recognized as deacons and Brother J.L. Maddox, R.S. Dalton and J.W. Schoolcraft were elected as trustees.

At a later date pews, a new organ, wood-burning stove, coal oil chandeliers and a 3-foot bell were added as the congregation could afford them. The two coal oil chandeliers with eight lamps to the chandelier cost $3 each and had to be cleaned and oiled for each Sunday. The bell was donated by Mrs. Lucinda Dalton and still hangs in the church belfry today, even though in a new building. A sexton was also hired to haul and chop the wood for the wood heater. He was paid $3.50 per month but had to furnish the wood.

That 1886 church building was used until 1952, when it was replaced by the current building. Today the church still meets in the 1952 building.

Times have changed, frontier hardships being replaced by the relative ease of life in the 21st century. But the church body still survives and serves its community in much the same way as that early pioneer church.

Through the 151 years of the church, there have been many pastors. Some were lay pastors and some ordained, career pastors. In addition to G. W. Slaughter, some of these men especially stand out. One was Homer G. Lindsay Jr., who attended Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth in the years 1950-1952. During these years Lindsay was pastor of the Baptist Church in Palo Pinto. Following his graduation, Lindsay moved to Florida in September and took over a mission church in Miami that had a membership of 42. By the late 1960s that mission church had grown to a membership of 3,200. First Baptist of Jacksonville, Fla., a church of 2,600 membership, extended to him the call to be their pastor in 1969. By the time of Lindsay’s retirement in 1999, the church had a Sunday morning attendance of as many as 9,000, with 18 ordained ministers, an annual budget of over $9 million, full-time staff of 142, and land and other assets valued at about $6 million.

Another notable young pastor of First Baptist Palo Pinto was Maynard F. Ewton. Dr. Ewton, the husband of a descendant of G. W. Slaughter, served the Palo Pinto church from 1930 through 1933. In 1933 he went to Seminole, Okla., and from there on Sept. 17, 1947, to pastor the First Baptist Church of Enid, Okla., where he became a very influential and well-known pastor.

Pastor Caywood was pastor of the Palo Pinto Baptist Church from April 1, 1954, through May 31, 1995. His 41 years and 2 months of service affected church, town and county in ways the church is still discovering. The very first positive difference was the change from bi-monthly preaching to weekly preaching services. This was the first time the little church had ever had weekly preaching.

Even though Bro. Caywood came weekly to preach, his position for the entire 41 years of his service in Palo Pinto was to remain bi-vocational. For the first year the Caywoods lived in Fort Worth near the seminary and came to Palo Pinto on Sundays. However, after Bro. Caywood finished his degree he did something none of the other seminary pastors had done. He continued his career at the Palo Pinto church. The congregation was so excited they took a cattle trailer to Fort Worth, loaded all the Caywood’s worldly goods into the trailer and truck, and brought them to Palo Pinto to a house next door to the church. From that time, Bro. Caywood and his family became beloved church and community members, serving whereever the need arose. They are still remembered and loved by those of the church and community who remember their service.

When Bro. Caywood arrived on the field, the new church building was already under construction. In 1969 a new educational building was built to meet the needs of the growing church. And in 1976 the present parsonage was built.

The current pastor, Bro. Ferel Gage, moved onto the field in November 2004 and since then he and his family have taken a special place in the hearts of the church members as he leads us forward.

The church now known as First Baptist Church of Palo Pinto has ministered to and been a vital part of the community of Palo Pinto for 151 years, since mid 19th century, and is poised to take that work on through the 21st century, God willing.