First Baptist Church of Rosebud

The church sits in a town with an odd naming history. The Handbook of Texas says the original settlement was Pool's Crossing or Greer's Horsepen, and that Albert G. Tarver set up a post office called Mormon in 1884 after Mormons who had settled nearby. Fire destroyed the settlement in 1887. Postmaster Allin Taylor wanted to honor a local family known for roses, but the name Mullins was taken, so on April 23, 1887 the post office became Rosebud. An editor later started a rosebush in every yard, and the Handbook says the railroad left in 1968.

What the plaque says

First Baptist Church of Rosebud One year after the railroad town of Rosebud was platted, the First Baptist Church was established with eleven charter members. On March 2, 1890, the small congregation organized in a schoolhouse on the Gott Farm. In September of that year the church joined the Waco Baptist Association, but in 1891 became a charter member of the newly created Falls County Baptist Association. Worship services were held on the Gott Farm until 1892. That year the Texas Town Site Company deeded a lot on this block for the construction of a church, and services have been held at this site ever since. The congregation later acquired the entire block, and built several progressively larger church structures here over the years to accommodate its growth. Since the Ladies' Aid Society was formed in 1893, the congregation has been active in missionary and social service endeavors including revitalizing a local Hispanic Baptist mission, providing disaster relief, and ministering to the elderly. From its humble beginning, the First Baptist Church of Rosebud has become an important part of the religious life of this community. It continues to uphold the ideals of its founders. (1991)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Milam County Courthouse and Jail — 16 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 — 19 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.
• Temple Railroad and Heritage Museum — 22 mi
  The Santa Fe depot of 1911 in a railroad town that began in 1880 as a construction camp, now a museum with locomotives and cars parked beside the active rail yard.

More markers nearby

• Saint Michael's Catholic Church — 4.4 mi
• Barclay Cemetery — 8.2 mi
• Church of the Visitation — 9.0 mi
• Homesite of Theodore Rabroker — 9.0 mi