First Baptist Church of Bastrop

The Colorado Baptist Association, to which Bastrop's new church sent messengers in 1850, had to decide in 1866 what to do about its Black members. It voted to keep them, convinced they would fall into error without "the superior intelligence of the Whites." Black Baptists had other ideas and withdrew en masse from white-controlled churches, and the first Black Baptist association in Texas formed that same year. Most White Texas Baptists had supported slavery and justified secession.

What the plaque says

First Baptist Church of Bastrop On August 3, 1850, Elder G. G. Baggerly, pastor at the First Baptist Church of Austin, organized the Missionary Baptist Church of Bastrop with eleven members. On September 5, 1850, the new church sent its first messengers to the Colorado Baptist Association's fourth annual session in Seguin. Membership grew to 34 by 1853, and the church, in cooperation with two other organizations, shared a two-story frame structure at the corner of Pecan and Chestnut streets. The congregation met only once a month, and membership suffered during the difficult years of the Civil War and Reconstruction. The building was destroyed by fire in 1863. By the 1880s, the Baptist church was enjoying a resurgence in membership and built a new structure on Pecan Street near the site of the 1853 building. The congregation continued to prosper in the following decades, and in 1909 was renamed First Baptist Church of Bastrop. Twenty years later, a lot on the corner of Water and Farm streets was donated to the congregation for a new building, which was completed during the years of the Great Depression. Continued growth resulted in acquisition of additional property and construction of larger facilities. By the end of the 20th century, it had become the largest Baptist congregation in Bastrop County. From its beginning, the First Baptist Church of Bastrop was organized to support local, state and foreign missionary endeavors. It continues to play a vital part in mission work and to serve the community in a variety of ministries. (2001)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Bastrop State Park — 1.9 mi
  The westernmost loblolly pines in the United States, cut off from the East Texas forest by a hundred miles of post oak, burned almost entirely in 2011 and growing back.
• Texas Wendish Heritage Museum — 20 mi
  A museum at Serbin of the Wends, a Slavic people from Lusatia whose congregation of nearly 600 crossed on the Ben Nevis in 1854, losing seventy-three to cholera on the way.
• McKinney Falls State Park — 25 mi
  Limestone falls on Onion Creek inside Austin, where people camped under a rock overhang for thousands of years and a financier of the Texas Revolution built his stone ranch house.
• Lockhart Courthouse Square — 26 mi
  A cotton-era courthouse town named the Barbecue Capital of Texas, built near the 1840 Plum Creek fight that followed the killing of Comanche leaders at peace talks.

More markers nearby

• Bastrop Methodist Church — steps away
• First National Bank of Bastrop — steps away
• The Bastrop Advertiser — steps away
• Site of Bastrop Military Institute — 0.2 mi