This story has its setting in the central part of Texas, but a little to the east. The territory is about thirty miles square and more than thirty miles west of Waco. (All of that land with no churches. The Prairie was fertile and well-watered, which made it desirable as a location for homes. It was soon settled by the ever westward advance. Waco had had a church since 1851. Since the Pilgrims had landed on Plymouth Rock, William Penn had settled in Pennsylvania, and Roger Williams had founded Rhode Island, it had been the custom of American people to institute a church wherein they might worship God soon after the homes were established. For those people in Coryell County, it was a long, tiresome journey to Waco to attend services. Then, too, the swiftest, most satisfactory mode of travel was an ox wagon. It took days to make the trip. There were no roads across the country, and no bridges over the streams, and dangers from Indians were always present. Anyway, they just needed a church.

About 1850 the Army Engineers laid-out the military road through Fort Gates and west to Forts Griffin and Belknap.

Fort Gates was a few miles from Coryell Church and also a few miles from where Gatesville now stands. This road went up the divide between Lampasas and the Leon Rivers. This