Pidcoke Baptist Church

The Handbook of Texas traces the name Pidcoke through three post office spellings. The first office, granted in 1875, was Pidcock Ranch, with Thomas Williamson as postmaster. In 1882 it became Pidcoe, and in 1883 Pidcoke. By 1884 the village had a public school, two gristmills, two cotton gins, three churches and 150 people. The post office closed in 1944, after Fort Hood took much of the school district and children were sent to classes in Gatesville. The last store closed in 1983, and by 1989 twenty-five people, a few vacant buildings and the old gin remained.

What the plaque says

Pidcoke Baptist Church Organized in 1884 as Harmony Baptist Church, this congregation began with four charter members. Early worship services were held in the local schoolhouse. A sanctuary, erected in 1907 was destroyed by fire two years later. A new church was built by 1911, and in 1916 the name was changed to Pidcoke Baptist Church. In 1934, a new sanctuary replaced the 1911 structure. Among the church's traditions are camp meetings and baptisms in Cow House Creek. Active in community projects, the congregation led in the restoration of Pidcoke Cemetery. (1986)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Hancock Springs Park — 23 mi
  Lampasas's city park on Sulphur Creek, with a spring-fed swimming pool that holds about 69 degrees all year, the walls of the old bathhouse and a golf course.
• Mother Neff State Park — 25 mi
  A Leon River park that grew from six acres Isabella Neff left the state in her 1921 will, where Civilian Conservation Corps Company 817 built a stone tower, a pavilion and roads in the 1930s.

More markers nearby

• Pidcoke Cemetery — 0.5 mi
• Harman School Community Center — 5.8 mi
• King Baptist Church — 7.2 mi
• Immanuel Lutheran Church — 7.6 mi