submitted by: Dianna Anderson Moore

Research done by Juanita Anderson for Homecoming

"Nestled amid giant oak trees at the end of the road five miles east of Linden, Texas. stands a little country church called the Center Grove Baptist Church.

Although little is known of the church prior to 1876, the cemetery across the road, bares mute testimony to the fact that a church has been in existence in the community since at least 1851.

There is a deed dated back in Nov. 1882 showing a deed from J. T. (James Thomas) Hamilton and his son-in-law James R. (Reaves) Anderson (my great-great grandfather and great grandfather) who conveyed an acre of land to J. A. Smith, B. J. Crawson and J. T. Moore for the purpose of building a school house and Baptist Church.

Before that time church services had been held in the old school house. No one knows how long the church had been in existence. It was mentioned in a deed dated Feb. 16, 1865 that Charles Graham conveyed to the heirs of James B. Thompson 210 acres of land situated and lying on the waters of the Frazier Bayou, excluding 2 acres of land in a square to include the house called the Chapel Meeting House. There is a small meeting house there. We do not know if this has been found or recorded. This chapel and cemetery is located south of the present church and cemetery.

The Center Grove Community was so named because it is located near the exact geographical center of Cass County. Early inhabitants of the community consisted mainly of the Hamiltons, Andersons, Grahams, Echols, Pates, Simmons, Surratts, Taylors, Washingtons, and others.

James Reaves Anderson, son-in-law of James Thomas Hamilton, went with J. T. Hamilton to sign the deed for the church and school, according to Mack Looney Anderson, son of James Reaves Anderson and Annie Hamilton Anderson. 

Mrs. Lona Powell said she started to school when she was five years old, and they had church in the one room school house. They did not have a school house then. She was born in 1904.

Mr. Wayne Brown of Linden, who was a descendant of General John Charles Graham, said that Mr. Graham was a general in the Confederate Army. His daughter was Elizabeth Caroline Graham, one of the oldest tombstones in the cemetery. Along beside the standing tombstone is a broken one inscribed Jane Rayburn, wife of Charles Graham. These are two of the oldest gravestones still standing.

Mr. Thurman Taylor lived in the community at the time and recalled that some time after the school and church were built, the school was moved up the road, but the church stayed in the same location.

In 1921, a cyclone destroyed the church and all the records. The church was destroyed three times in the same year by cyclones and each time, the members and friends of the community rebuilt the church. The last time the church was built was in 1922."

Written by Juanita Anderson (she is the widow of my dad's first cousin and still attends church there) 

Here is a second history I have that was written for the 100th anniversary of the church. It doesn't have who did the research on it. It is just a little booklet with some of the church records information on pastors and officers of the church. 

"The written history of the first 25 years of Center Grove Baptist Church of Linden, was destroyed by a cyclone in the year of 1921, and the church was blown away.

We have records to show there was a church back in 1876, but we also have proof there may have been a church further back than that.

There is a gravestone in the cemetery inscribed Elizabeth Caroline Graham. Graham, who probably fought in the Confederate Army. Mrs. Graham died March 12, 1851. Her grave is the oldest grave in the cemetery.

Center Grove is a little country church, that is nestled amid giant oak trees at the end of a road about five miles east of Linden. Near one of these old oak trees, that still stand by the cemetery, is where the first little church-school building was built in 1876.

In this building, they began their church, in 1876. Also in this building, they had school. The pastor of the church, was Rev. Parsons McClod.

They continued using the school building for a church, until James Thomas Hamilton and James Reaves Anderson sold said land for the sum of one dollar. This is the land where the church is today.

The new church was built in Nov. 7, 1882. The church and school was separated, with the church in the same location as of today.

The first year of Sunday School that we have record on is in the year of 1908 with 111 members."

A new church has been built next to the old church in the past few years. 2004-2005.