Poetry Baptist Church

The name Poetry came from a merchant's springtime impression. The Handbook of Texas says the postal service asked in 1876 for a name that would not be confused with another office, and local merchant Maston Ussery suggested Poetry because the area in spring reminded him of a poem. The post office moved from the Turner's Point site to Poetry in 1879, and the old name Salem belonged to the earlier community. The Handbook adds that the office closed in 1905 when service consolidated at Terrell, and that the town had an estimated 234 people in 1904.

What the plaque says

Poetry Baptist Church The oldest Baptist church in Kaufman County, organized in 1855 by The Rev. J. J. Butler and The Rev. J. R. Briscoe. Original name was Salem Baptist Church, when the community was called Turner's Point. In 1870, the congregation helped organize the 11-church East Fork Baptist Association, and hosted annual conferences on three occasions. The first structure on this site was built in the mid-1880s. In 1899, the name "Poetry Baptist Church" began to be used, and by 1909, "Salem" had disappeared. The present church sanctuary was built in 1912. (1974)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• No. 1 British Flying Training School Museum — 7.9 mi
  A free museum at Terrell's airport where about 2,200 RAF cadets learned to fly between 1941 and 1945, with logbooks, uniforms, letters and original training aircraft.
• Rockwall County Historical Foundation & Museum — 14 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.
• Audie Murphy / American Cotton Museum — 22 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 — 31 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.

More markers nearby

• Poetry Methodist Church — 0.5 mi
• Dry Creek Cemetery — 1.4 mi
• Porter Farms — 4.1 mi
• Public Education in Terrell — 5.1 mi