The founder of Buffalo Gap’s Church of the Nazarene, locally known as the “Sweet Church,” is the subject of a new documentary currently airing on Alabama Public Television.

Cagle and Cagle

“Rebels in the Pulpit, ” a presentation produced by the University of Alabama Center for Public Television and Radio, examines Mary Lee Wasson Harris Cagle’s life work including her struggle to gain acceptance for her ministry at a time when women were not expected to do such work. Cagle was one of the founders of the Church of Nazarene and was involved in missionary work throughout Alabama, Kentucky, and eventually West Texas. In 1902, she built the Holiness Church of Christ which in 1908 merged with the Pentecostal Church of the Nazarene. This eventually became the Church of the Nazarene. The church was located at the corner of Oak and Mulberry Streets in Buffalo Gap.

The Buffalo Gap Church became known as the “Sweet Church” when the members found honeybees had established a hive in the loft and walls. Despite their best efforts, the church members were unable to move the bees, so considering the honey a gift from the Lord, they elected to let the bees stay and divide the honey among the congregation. The church closed in 1977 due to declining membership and the building was moved from its original location to the Buffalo Gap Historic Village by Dr. R. Lee Rode. Today the church is used to represent religion on the Texas frontier and the Holiness Movement that swept the American South at the turn of the century. It is a popular site for weddings.

Cagle and Cagle again, later

The Grady McWhiney Research Foundation, which acquired ownership and operation of the Village in 1999, has plans to do a complete renovation of the church, including some necessary structural repairs. The project will include the raising of $75,000 required for the renovation. Rick Weatherl of Abilene is the consulting architect on the project. “The church is an important part of the story we are telling here at the Village,” notes a spokesman for the Village, “and certainly Ms. Cagle’s life makes it all the more special.”

As the documentary, produced by Wendy Bruce, points out, Cagle struggled with her calling for over fifteen years before electing to preach. A native of Landersville, Alabama, she first felt the call at the age of fifteen, but it was not until she heard Free Methodist Missionary Robert Lee Harris preach that she was “reclaimed.” Still, family and social pressure kept here out of the pulpit. She married Harris in 1891 and devoted herself to supporting his work. Swept up in the Holiness Movement that spread across the South at the turn of the century, the Harrises launched a new church movement called “The New Testament Church.”

When Harris died in 1894, Mary elected to take on the fullness of her calling and started to preach. She helped establish nearly 29 churches and encouraged other women to become preachers. In 1899 she moved to Buffalo Gap. At a camp meeting, a cowboy named Henry Cagle heard her preach and was then converted. They married in 1900. Henry also became a preacher. Both she and Henry were pastors of the Buffalo Gap Church off and on during the next twenty years. Establishing Buffalo Gap as a home base, they often traveled to preach at various revivals and camp meetings.

Mary Cagle delivered her last sermon on her birthday in 1954. She died a year later at the age of 91 and is buried with her second husband here in Buffalo Gap. 

You can read more about Mary Cagle and her ministry at the Wesley Center for Applied Theology.