Bethlehem Baptist Church

The congregation calls itself one of the oldest and one of the newest, as the Collin Baptist Association's 1986 centennial history puts it. Services began in 1843 in the log cabin of Hugh and Mrs. Woody, and a circuit-riding preacher came one Sunday a month. The church belonged to the Trinity River Baptist Association. After services stopped in 1958, a cemetery association kept the frame chapel up. At a reorganization service in December 1984, moderated by Gilbert N. Callaway, the members still on the roll were joined by five new ones. Mrs. Woody's burial in 1845 began the cemetery.

What the plaque says

Bethlehem Baptist Church Bethlehem Baptist Church Bethlehem Baptist Church was established in 1854. Gifts provided land for a church and cemetery: in 1859, from Hugh and Edea Woody; in 1886, from Peyton D. and Sallie E. Huff; and, in 1904, from J.B. and Martha Watson. At that time, the Bethlehem Missionary Baptist Church, as it was known then, built a wooden chapel. The church has been part of Sister Grove, East Fork and Collin Baptist associations. Early pastors included B. Watson, W.D. Chapman, W.H. Dunn and A.J. Standifer. No services were held from 1958 to 1984, but a cemetery association maintained the chapel and the grounds, holding annual reunions. In 1984, members reactivated the church, and the growing congregation constructed additional buildings. (2002)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Audie Murphy / American Cotton Museum — 17 mi
  A Greenville museum of Hunt County's military heroes, including Audie Murphy, and of cotton, which keeps the engine of what it says was the world's largest inland cotton compress.
• Heard Natural Science Museum & Wildlife Sanctuary — 18 mi
  A 289-acre sanctuary in McKinney that Bessie Heard founded at the age of 80, with five habitats, a 50-acre wetland and 6.5 miles of trails.
• Sam Rayburn House State Historic Site — 23 mi
  The two-story farmhouse west of Bonham that the longtime Speaker of the House built in 1916 and kept as his home, left as he lived in it and open as a museum since 1975.
• Rockwall County Historical Foundation & Museum — 23 mi
  A small museum in Harry Myers Park that keeps the evidence on Rockwall's rock wall, sandstone dikes that geologists call natural and folk tales call built.

More markers nearby

• Frognot Community — 3.7 mi
• Merit Methodist Church — 3.9 mi
• Blue Ridge Methodist Church — 4.7 mi
• Blue Ridge — 5.0 mi