First Baptist Church of Hearne

The plaque puts "Major" in quotation marks, and the rank was real. The Handbook of Texas says William Evander Penn, captured as a Confederate cavalry captain in February 1864, was exchanged in April 1865 and then promoted to major. In Texas he presided over the Baptist Sunday School and Colportage Convention in 1873 and 1874, years before his revivals, and he died at Eureka Springs, Arkansas, in 1895. The congregation reached 150 years in 2019, when the Texas House honored it, counting more than 30 senior pastors and a campus on West Davis Street.

What the plaque says

First Baptist Church of Hearne Organized April 18, 1869, as "Hearne Station Baptist Church," with 11 charter members. After great revivals under the Rev. "Major" Penn, and gift of a site by incorporators of Southern Pacific Railroad, a sanctuary was built in 1877. Pastor H. R. Carroll and congregation laid cornerstone Sept. 2, 1907, for a new auditorium, adopting name "First Baptist Church." On Jan. 23, 1966, present church was dedicated under leadership of the Rev. James Scirratt. This congregation organized and in 1969 erected a building for a Mexican Baptist mission. (1969)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Calvert — 8.4 mi
  A railroad cotton town of 1868 on State Highway 6 that claimed the largest cotton gin in the world and elected Black men to county and state office during Reconstruction.
• Milam County Courthouse and Jail — 23 mi
  Cameron's 1892 Renaissance Revival courthouse and the 1895 St. Louis-built jail beside it, now the county museum, are listed together on the National Register.
• George H.W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum — 24 mi
  The library of the forty-first president on the Texas A&M campus, opened in 1997, where George and Barbara Bush and their daughter Robin are buried in a family plot on the grounds.

More markers nearby

• A Century of the Methodist Church — steps away
• City of Hearne — 0.2 mi
• Site of the Town of Nashville — 5.0 mi
• The Parish Carriage House — 8.4 mi