The first congregation of the Byron Church of Christ met for worship in the Byron School House in 1929 and continued to meet there until the present building was completed in 1930. During that time, a gospel meeting was held in a brush arbor just northwest of the school house. This was in the edge of the woods beside the old wagon road that lead to the Joe Bray farm.
The plot of land where the church building stands was purchased from Bert and Minnie Moser. Church members and others in the community donated their labor. Harvey Blue, John R. Price and Alex Neal were the stone masons, and the honeycomb rock was dug from the Jim Neal farm. The white beading between the rocks making the cobblestone pattern was formed by Harold Cochran and painted by Jim Battle. The pine lumber for the "benches" (pews) was sawed at the Baker Sawmill in Elizabeth, Arkansas. John Coleman, Harold Cochran, and Troy Sanders hauled the wide planks from Elizabeth to Byron with their wagons and teams, a distance of about 8 miles. Alex Neal constructed the benches and also the pulpit. We proudly sit on those same benches and have the same pulpit to this day. We also continue to use the original communion table which was made from walnut wood by Harvey Blue. Harvey's wife, Lela, made the original hem-stitched linen scarf for the table. Sadly, we no longer have the original scarf, but our senior church members remember it fondly. Actually, some of us who are 'not quite seniors' remember the scarf as it was in use for many, many years. From the information we have, it seems that in the early years the 'communion basket' was kept most of the time by Lenora Newman, although other women did take turns keeping the "Basket". They were Eva (York) Cochran, Ruby (Battle) Cochran, Mace (Price) Sublett, Della (Mahlar) Coleman, and Jesse Davis. The communion basket contained the items necessary for the preparation of the Lord's Supper. Back in those days, the unleavened bread was baked at home, and home canned grape juice was used. We no longer bake our own unleavened bread, but once in a great while we still get a taste of home canned grape juice. Our ladies still take turns "keeping the Basket". (This writer isn't sure how old you have to be to get asked to start taking turns "keeping the basket", but thinks her time might be close at hand.)
The earliest preachers were John L. Fry, Monroe Lemmons, and Lacy Porter. During the late 1930's, a summer singing school was held in the church house. It was taught by Claude Russell of Pineville. Students were taught to read and sing 'shaped notes'.
