Oklahoman Archives
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
1939 Aug 13, 1939

Pastor Serves
        31 Years In State Church

Dr. P. J. Conkwright
        Is Veteran at Sapulpa

SAPULPA. Aug. 12.-(Special.)- Dr. P. J. Conkwright, pastor of the Baptist church here has just started his thirty-second consecutive year as pastor of the local congregation. This sets a record for Oklahoma Baptist ministers maintaining an unbroken pastorate of 31 years in the same I place.

Doctor Conkwright came to Sapulpa the first Sunday in August, 1908. He found a membership of 200 worshipping in a small frame church. He has built his congregation until now it is more than 1,200. The little frame church has grown into a fine brick edifice.

Called "everybody's minister." Doctor Conkwright administers not only to those in his own church but to all denominations here. He is called on to serve at a great number of funerals and a large proportion of such requests come from families who are not members of his congregation.

Doctor and Mrs. Conkwright are natives of Kentucky. He is a graduate of Georgetown university and came to Sapulpa soon after his graduation. His first pastorate in Oklahoma was at Bristow, where he served three years, and from there he went to Yukon and then to Sapulpa.