Friendship Baptist Church, which was the mother church for the now West Side Baptist, was first recorded in the associational records in 1892. Unofficial information has dated the organization as early as 1852. Friendship was also the mother church for Pleasant Valley in 1912, West Point in 1918, and the church that played an important role in the life of the now West Side Baptist was Walnut Springs in 1914.

​The Walnut Springs church building was erected late in 1914 on land furnished by Mr. John Suits. The church was located in the area of what is now Boozer Lake. Present records indicate that in 1919 Rev. James J. Dyer and almost 100% of the remaining members of Walnut Springs Baptist came to town and organized the West Jacksonville Baptist Church meeting on the first and third Sundays. Services were held in an old empty store building next to Maxwell’s Restaurant and Saloon about 50 yards from the present church building. For no known reason the name was again changed in 1921 and became known as the Jacksonville West Baptist Church. Then for a fourth time sometime in the 1940’s the name changed to the present West Side Baptist Church.