INDIAN GAP BAPTIST CHURCH

                    
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INDIAN GAP BAPTIST CHURCH

 

Across the Fence

 

By Arvord Abernethy

 

Several of us spent an enjoyable evening recently at the Indian Gap Baptist Church . The churches of the county had met there for an evening of fellowship and worship.

 

The day had been cloudy to keep the temperature down, and there was a light breeze blowing to make it an ideal day. When the Marvin Winninghams and I drove up, there was a long table set up under those large oak trees in the yard and it was covered with delicious food waiting for us.

 

We were a little early, so had time to visit some. I noticed that the rock fence along the front was of huge stones that showed sign of having been dressed, so I asked Raymond Seider about them. He said that the stone that was used for the trim, the corners, etc. on the Hamilton County Courthouse came from that mountain that is right behind Indian Gap. The stone is soft enough that it can be sawed, so the good pieces were used in the courthouse and the rejects are what they used in the church fence. Those square stones make a mighty good place to sit and eat a picnic dinner.

 

There is another connection between the courthouse and Indian Gap. If you will look up over the southwest entrance to the courthouse, you will see the large carving of an Indian head. Charley Swindle was telling me that the original one was broken during construction and was discarded. Some of the Indian Gappers thought that an Indian head would be a good emblem for them to have on their school. Charley and some others came into Hamilton in an old Model T truck, picked up the head, cemented it back together and placed it over the entrance of the Indian Gap School .

 

That was fifty years ago and that old Indian still stands at the front of the school with a lonely look on his face as he looks toward the gap in the mountain hoping to see some of his ancestors come through. Just before dark when the breezes are right, he can imagine that he can hear his people doing their ceremonial dances on those large flat rocks there in the Gap.

 

The old Indian no longer gets to see and hear the laughter of school children as they play. The once active school building of two story brick, now looks out over the countryside through empty window sockets. There is some fine farming country around Indian Gap where they still raise big crops but not big families. Charley Swindle said that he was the 16th of a family of 17 children, so you see why they had such a large school at one time.

 

The well-kept Indian Gap Cemetery is right beside the church yard, so having a few minutes before the program at the church, I strolled through that Silent City of the Dead. I saw the resting place of several that I had known, but may I mention just the names of two, Mr. and Mrs. Will J. Harris. We sometimes think of their tragic deaths in 1957, but I like to think of them as school teachers, church workers and he as the Hamilton County Judge.

 

One of the first schools that Mr. Harris taught was at Washboard. Remind me to tell you sometime how it got its name. Charley said he was going to school there then and that 19 of the pupils were nephews and nieces of Mr. Harris, and that he was one of them. So many called him “Uncle Will” that the other pupils took it up and called him that until his death.

 

Will married Miss Ura Neighbours, the daughter of another pioneer family. I still have a letter of appreciation that she wrote me, and in it is radiated the warmth and friendliness that marked her personality.

 

I once saw the picture of the State Champion Relay Team that Indian Gap produced in 1915. That tall, gangling boy in the picture holding the shot-put ball was Will Harris. He set a record for high jump also that year.

 

As one looks through the large brick entrances on each side of the cemetery, across the well kept grounds, your eyes follow up the side of the mountain to the twenty foot tall granite marker on top that marks the family plot of the Hawley Gerrells.

 

Paved roads, fast transportation have killed Indian Gap, but there will always be that tall granite marker atop the mountain to remind people of that once very active and prosperous community.

 

 

 

Shared by Roy Ables

ACROSS THE FENCE 

INDIAN GAP BAPTIST CHURCH

 

 

 
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People and Places: Gazetteer of Hamilton County, TX
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Copyright © March, 1998
by Elreeta Crain Weathers, B.A., M.Ed.,  
(also Mrs.,  Mom, and Ph. T.)

A Work In Progress