Poetry Baptist Church
Terrell, Kaufman County, Texas
Marker Inscription
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.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Organized in 1855 as Salem Baptist Church when the surrounding settlement was still called Turner's Point, this is the oldest Baptist congregation in Kaufman County. It helped found the eleven-church East Fork Baptist Association in 1870 and hosted its conferences, before adopting the evocative name "Poetry Baptist Church" around the turn of the century. The present sanctuary, built in 1912, carries forward a fellowship that took root in frontier Texas.
Why it matters
The church traces the spread of organized religion and community life across the mid-19th-century Texas frontier, one congregation binding a scattered farming settlement together.
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Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Poetry Methodist Church
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Founded in 1845 as Turners Point by Elisha Turner, this Kaufman County community later took the charming name Poetry. Its Methodists bought their first church site from Zachariah Turner in 1855 for twenty dollars, with circuit rider J. W. Fields witnessing the deed. Even though the preacher could come only once a month, the frontier congregation grew to 119 members.
Dry Creek Cemetery
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This burial ground first served Turner's Point, a settlement founded by Elisha Turner in 1845 on the stage road running between Shreveport, Louisiana, and Dallas. When the town relocated a mile and a half southeast in the 1870s and took the name Poetry, the cemetery remained behind. Its 279 marked graves—the earliest that of Samuel Key, who died in 1871—carry the English, Scottish, Irish, and Welsh names of the area's pioneer settlers.
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