Pine Castle Pioneer Days, 1974

Pine Castle Baptist Church, by Ruth Linton.

In 1887, Rev. J.T. Bell and three or four families living near Lake Conway recognized the need for a Baptist Church in their neighborhood and proceeded to constitute themselves as such. They met in each others homes and in the schoolhouse. There were not enough of any one denomination in the area to support separate churches so, about 1900, the women of Pine Castle organized themselves into what was known as the "Christian Society Workers," and the Union Church was formed.

The purpose of the Society was to build themselves a church and help the needy. Everyone went to church; one Sunday a Baptist minister would preach, the next a Methodist, and the next a Missionary Alliance. Some of the early minutes of the church records show that they had "forty members in good standing, and twenty-seven to be recorded with." The Baptists would hold their baptising down on Lake Conway at Pleasure Beach where the park was, and many of the present oldtimers were baptised there.

It was the custom of the day for the women of the church to invite th eminister and his family to dinner at their homes after preaching. One tme, one of the ladies asked this rather obese minister to her home for dinner the next time he came to preach. He asked her, "What are you going to have?" She said, "Well, I thought I'd kill a hen." And, he replied without cracking a smile, "Make that two!"

In 1917, the Baptists built a church on the corner of South Orange and Hoffner. In 1930, an agreement was made between the Pine Castle Christian Workers Society and the trustees of the Union Church, deeding all properties held in trust to the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. The Pine Castle Baptists received $600.00 for their interest.

In 1959, First Baptist of Pine Castle sponsored a new mission, the "Lake Barton Mission," on Highway 15A, known as the "Whippoorwill Baptist Chapel." Rev. Tommy Ellington pastored from 1962-64, during which time the present five acres of beautiful lake front property on Hoffner Road was purchased, and a three-phase building program started.

The new Sancturay was completed. The Baptists now have over 1,100 members, some of the same oldtimers from Union Church days still appearing on their rolls.