The Echo Churches
Echo, Texas

[taken from a 1971 issue of the Coleman County Chronicle]

from A History of Coleman County and Its People, 1985 
edited by Judia and Ralph Terry, and Vena Bob Gates - used by permission
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    The Methodist Church was established at Echo about 1907, with the organizational meeting held on the north bank of Jim Ned Creek, near the highway bridge across the creek. Several people were baptized that day and became charter members of the church. The Edmundsons and Mrs. M. F. Jones and daughter, Allie (who married J. I. Holder), were some of the people instrumental in the organization of the church. Brother Pearson, father of Mrs. Keet Redding, was one of the oldtime pastors. In the summer of 1907, men of the community met and built a large brush arbor on the north bank of Jim Ned near the place the church was organized, and this arbor was replenished each year with green limbs on top. It was used for summer revivals and community picnics for several years.

    About 1913. the Baptist Church was organized, with Rev. Harvey Miller of Burkett as pastor for three years. Everyone in the community worked together in Sunday School activities of both churches. In 1934, the old Bethel Methodist (one of the Double Churches of the Indian Creek area) was dismantled, moved and set up on the school grounds. Mostly volunteer labor was used. It was owned by the Methodist Conference, and the organized Methodist and Baptist churches, each with half-time ministers and each contributing to the building upkeep, used the building. There was a Union Sunday school, using Methodist literature one year, Baptist the next, and all working together in harmony. The church still stands today, being used, along with the community center, for the monthly Echo Jamboree.

 
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