First Baptist Church of Nocona

Nocona had about 900 people in 1900, and by 1910 a dozen cotton-buying companies. A second leather-goods business opened in 1919. In 1925, when Herman Justin's sons moved their late father's boot business to Fort Worth, his daughter Enid Justin stayed and opened the Nocona Boot Company. By then the town had 100 businesses, two banks, a high school and twenty to thirty shallow oil wells nearby. It passed 2,000 people by 1930 and 2,600 by the mid-1940s, and by the 1960s it had 3,375 residents and 147 businesses.

What the plaque says

Organized in the summer of 1889 by The Rev. J.W. Holman and thirteen charter members, the Nocona Baptist Church first met in a local schoolhouse. The Rev. S.E. West served as first pastor. A sanctuary was completed in 1897, and in 1903 the name was changed to First Baptist Church. A new sanctuary replaced the 1897 structure in 1927. Over the years this congregation has been involved in many outreach projects, including the organization of Bethel Missionary Baptist Church in Nocona and the support of foreign missionary activities. (1989)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Stonewall Saloon Museum — 14 mi
  Saint Jo's first permanent building, a stone saloon of 1873 with rooms upstairs for trail drovers, in a town named, the story goes, as a joke on a founder who did not drink.

More markers nearby

• Farmers and Merchants National Bank — 0.2 mi
• Red River Station — 1.2 mi
• Red River Station — 7.2 mi
• Montague Cemetery — 8.5 mi