First Baptist Church of Buffalo

Buffalo was a railroad town named for the animals that once roamed there. The Handbook says it was founded in 1872 on the International-Great Northern, whose last link was completed four miles from the town that spring. Before the rails, residents shipped cotton by river and drove livestock to market. A two-story school later became the community center called the Opera House, then a hotel until the late 1940s. The post office opened in 1876. The town incorporated in 1913, lost its charter in 1917 and was later reincorporated, and passenger trains stopped in 1970.

What the plaque says

First Baptist Church of Buffalo First Baptist Church of Buffalo In 1877, when Buffalo was a young railroad town, 15 people met at the Buffalo Academy and formed a Baptist congregation. The Buffalo Missionary Baptist Church became part of the 35-member Trinity River Baptist Association the next year. In 1939, as part of the Freestone-Leon Association, Texas Baptist General Convention and Southern Baptist Convention, the congregation became first Baptist Church of Buffalo; it called its first full-time pastor in 1940. Eight years later, the congregation built a sanctuary at this site. Through its many years, the church has reached the community with its missions and education and music programs. (2002)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Fort Boggy State Park — 20 mi
  A 1,847-acre park in Leon County named for a settlers' palisade of 1840, with a 15-acre lake, short trails and the story of Tennessee farmers, the Keechi and a Ranger captain.
• Blind Lemon Memorial Cemetery — 33 mi
  The Freestone County grave of the Texas blues singer Blind Lemon Jefferson, who recorded for Paramount in Chicago from 1926 and died there in December 1929.

More markers nearby

• Braniff International Flight 542 — 3.3 mi
• Jewett Methodist Church — 8.7 mi
• Site of Worthy Store — 9.6 mi
• Antioch Cemetery — 10 mi