CORYELL CHURCH, TEXAS. Coryell Church is on Farm Road 185 five miles northwest of Oglesby in eastern Coryell County. The settlement grew up around the county's first Baptist church, which was established in 1854, and became known as Coryell Church; because no effort was made to establish a post office there, a more formal name for the community was unnecessary. In 1888 a new church building was completed on land donated by Green Franks and Henry Hall. Coryell Church thrived as long as the family farms in the area continued to operate. The school at the community had sixty-one students and one teacher in 1904. No population estimates were available for Coryell Church, but as late as the 1940s, a church, a business, and a number of residences were shown at the site on county highway maps. Gradually, however, small farms in the area were absorbed by larger operations, and the population of the community dwindled. Services at the church were held with reduced frequency. In 1970 the church building was designated as a Texas historical landmark, but in 1982 the church was declared unsafe and torn down. Only the cemetery remained to mark the Coryell Church community on county highway maps.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Coryell County Genealogical Society, Coryell County, Texas, Families, 1854-1985 (Dallas: Taylor, 1986).

Vivian Elizabeth Smyrl