First Baptist Church of Navasota

The plaque credits the 1889 plans to Mrs. A. E. Baten, wife of the pastor. A Baylor-trained Baptist named Anderson E. Baten preached in Texas from 1885 to 1920, and 179 of his sermons, handwritten until the typed ones begin in 1903, are digitized on the University of North Texas's Portal to Texas History. His listed pulpits include Brenham, Broadway in Fort Worth from 1890 and Brownwood; he taught Bible at Howard Payne and was its acting president from 1915 to 1917. The Portal's biography never names Navasota, so the match rests on name and dates.

What the plaque says

First Baptist Church of Navasota In the spring of 1860, six men formed this church, one of the first of any faith in the railroad town of Navasota. By fall there were 52 members, and growth continued. Services were held in the town's schoolhouse, and then in a Methodist church, until the Baptists received a site as a gift from the Houston & Texas Central Railway, and built a small frame sanctuary about 1872. A permanent edifice of native stone was started after Mrs. A. E. Baten, wife of the pastor, drew plans in 1889. Funds came from members and non-members, sometimes as donations of cattle, and a 46' x 67' x 37' x 67' stone building with a steeple was completed in 1890. By 1925 more room was needed; a 2-story annex was constructed. Although a new, larger sanctuary was erected in 1955, the 1890 building is still used. In 1969, it was converted into a fellowship hall, and after a disastrous fire the next year was restored in 1971. The congregation-- now numbering more than 900 members-- founded and financed one local mission that became self-supporting, and now underwrites another. During the church's first 116 years, it has been served by 35 pastors. (1977)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Navasota — steps away
  A railroad and cotton town where the La Bahia Road crossed the Navasota River, scarred by an 1865 explosion and yellow fever, and the home ground of the songster Mance Lipscomb.
• Star of the Republic Museum — 6.0 mi
  A star-shaped museum of the Republic of Texas years, 1836 to 1846, built at Washington-on-the-Brazos after a Brenham campaign and opened on March 1, 1970.
• Washington-on-the-Brazos State Historic Site — 6.1 mi
  The townsite on the Brazos where delegates met in a cold, unfinished hall in March 1836 to declare Texas independent, with Independence Hall rebuilt and Anson Jones's Barrington farm worked as in 1850.
• Fanthorp Inn State Historic Site — 8.9 mi
  A cedar-log dogtrot cabin of 1834 on the road through Anderson that grew into a seventeen-room inn and post office for travelers of the Republic, kept by one family until 1976.

More markers nearby

• Saint Paul's Episcopal Church — steps away
• First United Methodist Church of Navasota — steps away
• Site of Freeman Inn — steps away
• Home of Lt. Gov. George D. Neal — steps away