First Baptist Church

Brenham's Baptists first met in the Hickory Grove schoolhouse, after Rufus Burleson held a revival there in November 1848. A 1915 county history says they were counted as an arm of Mill Creek Baptist Church until 1851. The lot for their first building was bought for $25 from a free Black man named Enos. That church, built in 1852, was cedar throughout. When a new one went up, led by Mrs. Myra Graves, the old cedar building was sold to James A. Wilkins for $100. The book gives no more of Enos's story.

What the plaque says

First Baptist Church Organized Dec. 20, 1846, as New Year's Creek Church, at a school house in Allcorn area. Founders were Judge R. E. B. Baylor, W. W. Buster, and Hosea Garrett. Rev. A. D. Fisher was chosen as the church's first pastor in 1847. In 1848, the year Texas Baptist Convention was formed, Baylor University's first president, Rev. Henry L. Graves, became the pastor of this church. Church moved to Brenham, 1853, and name was changed. A large sanctuary built in 1892 was destroyed by fire Dec. 10, 1952. Church rebuilt, and fellowship hall was added by June 1954. (1967)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Independence and Old Baylor Park — 11 mi
  A crossroads north of Brenham that was the richest town in Texas when it won Baylor University in 1845, refused the railroad, and lost the college to Waco and Belton in 1886.
• Washington-on-the-Brazos State Historic Site — 18 mi
  The townsite on the Brazos where delegates met in a cold, unfinished hall in March 1836 to declare Texas independent, with Independence Hall rebuilt and Anson Jones's Barrington farm worked as in 1850.
• Star of the Republic Museum — 18 mi
  A star-shaped museum of the Republic of Texas years, 1836 to 1846, built at Washington-on-the-Brazos after a Brenham campaign and opened on March 1, 1970.
• Round Top and Festival Hill — 19 mi
  A German village on the old La Bahía Road, named for a house tower, with an 1867 stone church, a Fourth of July kept since 1851 and a concert hall a pianist built without blueprints.

More markers nearby

• First Methodist Church — steps away
• Brenham Public Library — steps away
• Washington County, C.S.A. — steps away
• Texas Confederate County Commissioners Court — steps away