I have a heap of information pertaining to different events and funerals, but this information has to be dug out because the information passed on to me by my Grandmother has to do with the Methodist church since she was a Methodist. I naturally have accumulated a lot of information about the Methodist church, but find myself looking when it comes to the Baptist congregation.

A friend of mine who has been reading my "Talk From Under the Tipi" for the past year and a half, recently came in and asked me why can’t I come up with some stories about the Baptist Church. I told him that if I had any information about the Baptist’s ministry in Aubrey, I didn’t know about it.

So I made a deal with this historian – I would give him access to my information, and he could in turn organize it so that we could have some information about the Baptists. His main interest is in establishing a historical marker for the building on Main Street. Since he is an airline pilot, he has some free time and is in the process of researching the history of the old building and its congregation. He is also working with the Denton County Historical Commission in his research. He lives in Denton, but has an interest in the history of our community.

My Grandmother was a Methodist, but my Grandfather was a Baptist, and I now understand that it was my Grandmother who saved all of the historical information, because I don’t have too much about the Baptists.

I told this historian what I knew about the construction of the old building – the frame work of the building is made up of timbers that are not standard in today’s market. This applies to the floors, walls, and the trusses in the roof. The trusses are so well constructed and braced that it is difficult to crawl through them.

I know from what I have heard, that the First Baptist Church was organized at the Belew settlement school house during 1875. Services were held in that location for a few years. The group then organized and built this building on six acres of land that was donated by L.N. Edwards. It was built facing the east on what is now Magnolia Street, with a cemetery located at the back of the church, which was a resting place for a number of the early day citizens.

Rev. Archie C. McDougal was a Methodist circuit rider who had helped design the First Methodist Church of Dallas during 1847, and the Methodists’ built their building in Onega in 1880. Since the original Methodist church and the Baptist church were very similar in construction, I find it easy to believe that they both could have been designed by Rev. Archie D. McDougal.

However, a tornado destroyed the Methodist church in 1918, and left the Baptist church standing. Buildings all around the Baptist church were destroyed and picked up and thrown around

The railroad came through in 1881, and took part of the property, leaving the remaining property for the church and the cemetery. The Belew settlement school was the burial ground for the Onegan citizens, and many of the Cherokee and Black Dutch settlers are located in the west part of the current Belew Cemetery.

The street that ran by the Baptist church was Church Street. It ran east and west on the north side of the church’s property. This same property was where the Aubrey public school built a two-story building at the same time the Baptist church was raised and put on rollers, moved across the railroad track and down Main Street to where it has prominently displayed itself as a worshiping light for the community for close to the next 80 or 90 years.

One of the lifelong members told me that the building was pulled by one mule. The mule made a circle with a device that slowly moved the building inches at a time, until the final resting foundation was prepared at the present location.

During the funeral of Pearl Haren, the attendance was extra large gathering. While the people were crowded inside the old building, and seated for the service (of which I was one), the center of the floor caved in.

It fell about two feet to the ground. The floor was varying heights from the ground. When the building was relocated, it was placed on a natural hill that caused the building to be closer to the ground in the back and higher off the ground in the front. When the highway was built through town in the 1920's, the dirt from the hill south of the Edward Mansion (where the current Baptist Church is located) was placed around the yard of the church and built up to where it stands today, leaving a fairly large hole under the floor.

When the floor fell, it broke pipes under the church, and the people attending the funeral began with a slow moaning, which soon turned to panic which was not evident the first few minutes.

Loren Tisdell, the County Commissioner at that time, who was attending the funeral was able to secure a pipe wrench from the county barn that was located diagonally across the highway from the church, and was able to cut the gas off before an explosion took place.

This was a very dangerous and trying time for a funeral. The leaking gas quickly dissipated and left no danger with fire or odor.

Next week, I will continue the story about the funeral and will try my hand on more historical information about the Baptists’ ministries in Aubrey.