Odell Baptist Church - Odell, TX - Baptist Churches on Waymarking.com

Besides web-spidered directory listings and an occasional mention in an obituary, the church has no online presence. The sign above the entrance says "1890", which could indicate the year the church was established, the year the sanctuary was built, or both. The Handbook of Texas Online indicates that Odell was established in 1908 with the arrival of the railroad, pulling residents and business away from Haulk, two miles away and itself established in 1902. There are plenty of questions about that 1890 date -- the church wouldn't have borne the name "Odell" -- and Odell's listing on the TexasEscapes website (see Website, below) further muddies the waters. A 2007 note from Billy Gilbert (Denton, TX) provides some interesting reading, with the relevant parts quoted below:

Thank you for the inclusion of Odell (Wilbarger County) in your features. I was born there and my Dad worked for the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad. We lived in the concrete “bunk houses” built for railroad employees that lie just west of the 3-way cross roads. Dad moved with the railroad jobs but we returned there in the mid-fifties and re-built the house that lies [near] between the Primitive Baptist Church.

I can attest to the existence of the five churches and report that my youthful employment included mowing the lawns of all of them and the small patch beside the old post office; a task that netted me 50 cents. The much larger church grounds could bring me as much as $5 for several hours labor. All five churches remained active until the early 1970’s with only the 1890 Baptist and the Primitive Baptist holding services today.

Mr. Gilbert obviously was in the know about the town, but he may have been mistaken about the construction date, although the sanctuary certainly has the look and feel of something built in the late 19th or early 20th centuries. There are multiple front entrances, and the larger building behind it was obviously constructed later, something that occurred regularly with small churches who outgrew their older facilities. While TexasEscapes refers to Odell as a ghost town, there are still over a hundred residents, with some life on the old main street, although it does appear that the aforementioned Primitive Baptist Church has disbanded, their sanctuary now bearing an "Odell Church" sign.

Date Built: 01/01/1890 Age of Church building determined by?: Other reliable source Service Times: Sunday: 11 AM and 6 PM Wednesday: 6 PM Website: [Web Link] Church Address: 20891 Church St Odell, TX USA 79247

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