First Baptist Church of Rockdale

Four years after the Handbook of Texas counted 1,700 people and five churches in Rockdale, the town's weekly gave a snapshot. The Rockdale Messenger of June 7, 1888, listed pastors for the Baptist church (the Rev. J. H. Stribling, whom the plaque calls Stripling), the Methodist, the Episcopal and the Cumberland Presbyterian, and carried nine separate lodge directories. Bottle beer was five cents a glass at the Rockdale Saloon. The paper ran four pages of six columns, and the mayor that year was J. H. Hill.

What the plaque says

First Baptist Church of Rockdale The community of Rockdale sprang up around a railroad camp in 1873. The Rev. B. B. Baxter arrived in 1874 and established a Baptist church with 18 charter members. The Rev. Mr. Baxter conducted services in a room above a dry goods store shared with other denominations. He was succeeded by the Rev. Vandevere, on the 18 chartered members, in 1876. At the urging of rival leader W. E. Penn and the Rev. Dr. J. H. Stripling, a simple structure was erected for worship services in 1881. A new building was erected on this site in 1919. The church grew steadily; a Latin American mission established in the 1950s became a full southern baptist church complex was built in 1972. The congregation remains active in community service and missionary work. (1999)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Milam County Courthouse and Jail — 13 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.
• Calvert — 29 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.

More markers nearby

• St. Thomas Episcopal Church — steps away
• George Sessions Perry — steps away
• Matinee Musical Club — steps away
• Site of Mundine Hotel — steps away