Pilot Point's Spiritual History
The Pilot Point Church of Christ has a long and rich history, spanning nearly 150 years. Settled in 1845, two years before Denton County came into being, “Pilot’s Point” as it was known then, was regarded as a strategic lookout for wagon encampments. Attracted by the fertile sandy loam soil, rolling hills and sturdy oaks, settlers from nearby Peter’s Colony, which is now part of the Carrollton / Farmer’s Branch area, headed north to stake their claim on the region. One of the early settlers was the family of Dr. and Mrs. R.W. Eddleman and their son, L.Z. Eddleman. In the early 1850’s, A.W. Cooke and his wife arrived from Missouri in a covered wagon, driving a team of mules.
It was in response to the rapid growth of Pilot Point in its first twenty years that the Church of Christ was formed around 1864. B.F. Hall, Brother Wilmeth and Alfred Douglass were early preachers for the new congregation. Some of the charter members included the families of S.A. Rimey, John Welborn, Joe Gist, G. Blake, A.W. Cooke, L.G. Belew, and the MckInney, Emberson and Edwards families.
Like most frontier churches, ours began as a fledgling group with limited financial means. Members of the Baptist, Methodist, Church of Christ and other denominations shared a common meeting house, the Masonic Lodge, throughout much of the period immediately following the Civil War. In 1874 church deacons purchased land on which the present meeting house is located from George W. and Alice B. Merchant. Building materials were shipped in by ox-drawn cart from the thickly wooded hills of Shreveport, Louisiana – a round trip journey which took L.Z. Eddleman six weeks to complete. A one room frame chapel was completed by church members in 1875 under the supervision of A.W. Cooke.
While the facility has been expanded and remodeled many times, its infrastructure is that of the original builders. Furniture items such as the pews, pulpit and communion table are also original and have been in continuous use throughout the life of the church. Hints of the structure’s rustic origins are apparent in the interior walls and the attic where square nails and rough-sawed bark covered wood slates hold the frame in place.
One of the more notable traveling evangelists to conduct revival meetings at the Pilot Point church was T.B. Larimore. His twenty-eight day meeting in the Spring of 1904 yielded numerous baptisms. Other evangelists and local preachers serving the congregation in the nineteenth century included Foy Wallace Sr., R.H. Boles, W.F. Ledlow, F.L. Young and Billy Woolfrom. The congregation’s impact on the community and its contribution to the history of the North Texas region were formally recognized in 1981 when the State of Texas designated it as an official historic site.
