First Baptist Church of Olton

Olton had only seventy-five people in 1910, two years after it became the county seat. L. L. Kyle began the Olton Enterprise in 1926, and when the town incorporated in 1930 it had 300 residents and three cotton gins. It reached 782 by 1940 and 1,917 by 1960, and in 1966 it counted four schools, thirteen churches, a bank, a hospital, a library and a newspaper. A low-cost housing project went up in 1965. The town kept growing slowly, to 2,288 people in 2000.

What the plaque says

First Baptist Church of Olton In 1903, the Rev. J.W. Winn, a missionary with the Staked Plains Missionary Baptist Association, led a meeting at a farmhouse northeast of what became Olton. That day, the first Missionary Baptist Church in Lamb County was organized. The members called the Rev. Richbourg as their first pastor. After meeting in area homes for many years, members joined area residents in 1908 in constructing a union church building to be used by several denominations. In 1923, under the leadership of the Rev. G.I. Britain, the Baptist congregation built its first sanctuary. The membership doubled within a few years and continued to grow and serve its community through education, worship and missionary work. (2004)

Where it stands

More markers nearby

• Olton's Union Church Bell — 0.6 mi
• Site of the First Lamb County Courthouse — 0.6 mi
• Lamb County — 1.3 mi
• Halfway — 11 mi