First Baptist Church of Henderson

Jesse Witt, the church's first pastor after the 1850 reorganization, had pastored Baptist churches in Powhatan County, Virginia, for seven years before the Southern Baptist Convention elected him a missionary in 1846. In Henderson he organized the church with John B. Renfro and J. O. Walker. A Baptist history blog drawing on Jeter's account says the earlier Henderson church begun by Lemuel Herrin around 1845 apparently disbanded. Witt organized and served several other East Texas churches, none named there, and died suddenly in Texas in 1858.

What the plaque says

First Baptist Church of Henderson Begun in 1845 by the Rev. Lemuel Herrin (d. 1852), pioneer missionary Baptist minister from Tennessee, this church was reorganized in 1850 by Elders John B. Renfro and J. O. Walker, and the Rev. Jesse Witt, who served as the first pastor. Total membership in 1850 was 21. In its early years, the fellowship shared a meeting place with the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. The present church building was dedicated April 25, 1954. At least three other congregations have been sponsored by this one. The membership has grown steadily in recent years to the current (1976) total of over 1800. (1976)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• New London Museum and Cenotaph — 10 mi
  A volunteer-run museum beside the pink granite cenotaph for the March 1937 school gas explosion, holding a model of the school, a blackboard from that day and an odorizer device.
• East Texas Oil Museum — 16 mi
  A Kilgore College museum that rebuilds the 1930s oil boom in a full-scale Boomtown with a general store, drugstore and newspaper office, plus dioramas, films and antiques given by East Texans.
• Tex Ritter Museum and Texas Country Music Hall of Fame — 27 mi
  Carthage's country music museum, with Tex Ritter's boots, guitars and saddles in a room styled like a movie theater, and exhibits on other Texas stars, Jim Reeves among them.

More markers nearby

• The 1860 Henderson Fire — steps away
• Merritt Building — steps away
• Henderson — steps away
• Judge William Wright Morris — steps away