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Newly emancipated blacks assembled on August 20, 1865, to form a congregation at Col. Ruben Buhl's plantation on the Brazos River (2 1/2 Mi. NE). The sixteen charter members named their fellowship Buhl's Quarters Baptist Church and met in a log cabin with the Rev. Joe Moore as their fist pastor. The Brazos River area often flooded, and in 1885 the congregation moved one mile west to higher ground donated by Col. Edward J. Gurley. The frame building there was named Rock Dam Baptist Church after the new site. According to local tradition, members were called to regular and special services by a bugle blown by brother Mose Wells. In 1890 Col. Gurley gave the church a bell that announced activity at the site. In that year the church listed almost 100 members, and the name was changed to Cedar Grove Baptist Church after the venerable trees shading the sanctuary. By 1924 membership had grown to 250, due primarily to the influx of sharecroppers on the surrounding farmland. By the early 1940s, however, land around the church was being stripped for gravel beds. In 1945 the congregation acquired this site in Satin and built a new church in 1946 under the leadership of the Rev. Hogan Guy, still using the 1890 bell. |
