St. Louis became part of the United States after the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. Over half of the population was infidels who boasted that the Sabbath had never crossed the Mississippi and never would. The first Baptist ministers came to Missouri as foreign missionaries to work among the heathen.

      In 1807 the Rev. Thomas Musick and a small group of friends met in a home near Fee Fee’s Creek. There they organized a Baptist church. The church met in the homes of members until 1815. That year they built a log house to meet in. Although the pews did not have backs, the people still though that they were comfortable.

      In 1830, the log building was replaced by a brick building located on the road from St. Louis to St. Charles. If you go to the Fee Fee Cemetery, you can see this building. This building was shared with Presbyterian and Methodist churches who, with the Baptists, took turns leading the services.

      During the 1860s, when most roads were made of dirt, a portion of the road to St. Charles was relocated and paved with rock . This road is still called the St. Charles Rock Road. The intersection of this road with Fee Fee Road became the center of a growing community later know as Pattonville.

      The church needed a new meeting house, and they decided to build it on the new road. Erastus Post, one of the church’s deacons, donated land for the building. The new building, which today is called the Chapel, was completed in 1870. The building was in a grove of oak trees, some of which were over a hundred years old. A fence to keep out cattle surrounded the property, and there was an outhouse behind the building.