First Baptist Church of Bronte

The Handbook of Texas says J. B. McCutchen drove cattle in from Santa Anna in 1889 and other settlers followed, among them Dr. W. F. Key, who started the town. Its first names were Oso and Bronco, but the post office rejected Bronco, and the town was named for Charlotte Brontë. By 1890 it had a post office, two churches and a school. After the Kansas City, Mexico and Orient came through in 1907, Bronte moved a mile to be near the track. In 1910 it had 635 people, two gins, a bank and the Enterprise newspaper.

What the plaque says

Organized by visiting minister W.G. Green and a congregation of three on June 19, 1887, the Baptist church in Bronte met in homes. In 1890 a brush arbor was built and the Rev. R.M. Cumbie was called as first pastor. Services were later held in the community school in winter and the brush arbor in summer. A Sunday school was organized in 1901 and the first church building was dedicated in 1907. A new building was completed in 1951. From its beginning, this church has been involved in missionary and community activities. (1987)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Fort Chadbourne — 11 mi
  An 1852 infantry post and Butterfield stage station on a Coke County ranch, its fallen stone buildings rebuilt since 1999 by the descendant of the family that has ranched the land since 1877.
• Z. I. Hale Museum and Rock Hotel — 20 mi
  A free museum in a Winters optometrist's office, a 1909 railroad hotel and a 1927 implement dealership, with Rogers Hornsby's hometown memorabilia and a 1912 horse-drawn cotton picker.
• Carnegie Library of Ballinger — 22 mi
  A 1909 limestone library with an Ionic portico in a railroad town the Santa Fe created in 1886, one of the few Texas Carnegie libraries still working in its original building.
• Abilene State Park — 34 mi
  A pecan-shaded park on Elm Creek in the Callahan Divide south of Abilene, with red sandstone CCC buildings, a summer pool, a bird blind and yurts under the trees.

More markers nearby

• Maverick — 6.3 mi
• Hayrick — 7.7 mi
• Tennyson — 9.5 mi
• Coke County — 9.5 mi