Bald Prairie Church of Christ

This congregation has a fictional cousin. Jewel Henson Gibson, born at Bald Prairie in 1904, spent fifteen years on Joshua Beene and God, a 1946 Random House satire about the chief elder of a Church of Christ in a small East Texas place called Spring Creek. Beene is also justice of the peace, school board president and self-appointed game warden, at war with the Baptists. Some Texans recognized Bald Prairie and took offense, and a Conroe ministerial alliance condemned the book. Texas A&M University Press reissued it in 1997.

What the plaque says

Bald Prairie Church of Christ Organized in 1847, this fellowship worshiped with members of the Baptist church until the groups separated in 1849. A log structure served the 15 charter members of this congregation as a church and school. Elijah Rains (1813-1889) donated land for the church and community cemetery. The present building, erected during the 1880s, doubled as a school for over 20 years. It also served as a funeral chapel and social and cultural center for the community. The classrooms were added in 1940. Descendants of early members still worship here. (1976)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Calvert — 22 mi
  A railroad cotton town of 1868 on State Highway 6 that claimed the largest cotton gin in the world and elected Black men to county and state office during Reconstruction.
• Old Fort Parker — 25 mi
  A rebuilt 1830s family stockade near the Navasota River, where a May 1836 attack killed men of the Parker settlement and took five captives, among them nine-year-old Cynthia Ann Parker.
• Fort Boggy State Park — 27 mi
  A 1,847-acre park in Leon County named for a settlers' palisade of 1840, with a 15-acre lake, short trails and the story of Tennessee farmers, the Keechi and a Ranger captain.

More markers nearby

• Bald Prairie Cemetery — steps away
• Ebenezer Baptist Church and Cemetery — 5.2 mi
• Site of Oletha Common School — 9.6 mi
• Site of Old Potter's Shop — 9.9 mi