First Baptist Church Of Cleburne

The year the plaque's congregation organized, 1868, Baptists also opened Cleburne's first school. The Handbook of Texas says the Alvarado Baptist Association established the Cleburne Male and Female Institute, which operated until 1872 as a church-related school, stayed open as a nonsectarian school for a few more years, and then became the site of the first public school. The town was new: named in 1867, with a post office its first year. Its first newspaper, the Cleburne Chronicle, began in 1868 with the future governor James Stephen Hogg on staff.

What the plaque says

First Baptist Church Of Cleburne First Baptist Church Of Cleburne Baptist missionary preacher W. A. Mason held a revival in the new Johnson County Seat of Cleburne in 1868 and on May 5 of that year formally organized the First Baptist Church with 16 members. Mason stayed on as pastor of the new congregation until the Rev. J. R. Clarke arrived in 1869 to begin an 11-year pastorate. During his tenure, the congregation purchased property and constructed its first building. In 1893, the Rev. Dr. George W. Baines, Jr., accepted the call to serve as pastor, and he led the church to found three new Baptist congregations. A new building was completed in 1901 on this site during the pastorate of the Rev. J. A. Hendricks to accommodate the growing congregation. Additional facilities, including an education building, were established to house the expanding ministries and church programs. After the sanctuary was found to be in poor repair, a new auditorium was constructed in 1941. Throughout its history, the First Baptist Church of Cleburne has accomplished significant work in the mission field, both in the community and overseas. A noteworthy part of the religious and cultural history of Cleburne, the congregation continues to uphold the ideals and traditions of its founders. (2002)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Cleburne State Park — 12 mi
  A 1930s Civilian Conservation Corps park on the old Chisholm Trail crossing country, with a spring-fed lake, a hand-carved three-tiered spillway and a CCC bridge in Johnson County.
• Acton State Historic Site — 18 mi
  The smallest state historic site in Texas, a grave plot holding Elizabeth Crockett, widow of David Crockett, under a 1913 statue of a pioneer woman shading her eyes toward the west.
• Granbury Courthouse Square — 24 mi
  A National Register square of limestone storefronts around W. C. Dodson's Second Empire courthouse, whose clock tower citizens saved after a 1968 tornado.
• Dinosaur Valley State Park — 26 mi
  Theropod and sauropod trackways of about 113 million years ago in the bed of the Paluxy River, a National Natural Landmark where R. T. Bird found the first distinct sauropod tracks in 1937.

More markers nearby

• Site of Old Picnic Grounds — steps away
• Pioneer Texas Telephones — steps away
• Cleburne Town Square — steps away
• Johnson, Middleton T., Colonel; Cleburne, Patrick R., General — 0.2 mi