First Baptist Church of Shamrock

The Shamrock the Baptists organized in had only just settled on its name. Lots were sold in August 1902 at a townsite then called Wheeler, and when storekeeper Frank Exum applied for a post office under his own name, the earlier Shamrock office was closed; the railroad named its stop Shamrock in 1903, and the Shamrock office reopened. Shamrock, Story and Benonine competed as trade centers until 1906, when businesses from the other two moved in. By 1908 the town had two banks and a cotton oil mill, and it incorporated in 1911.

What the plaque says

First Baptist Church of Shamrock Organized in 1904 by the Rev. E. A. Oller, this was the second church established in Shamrock. Charter members included Martha Anderson, A. N. Holmes, Mrs. Kaffir, Mrs. Betty McGreggor, and J. M. Woodley. First meeting place was the local schoolhouse. In 1906, the congregation called its first regular pastor, the Rev. J. W. Slaton, and bought property for building at Sixth and Wall. The Sunday School was started and church structure completed in 1907. In 1922 membership reached 248. On March 13 of that year, the original church building was struck by lightning and burned to the ground. After using a theater and the Methodist building, the Baptists bought this Main Street site, put up a temporary tabernacle, and completed a new church in 1926. A parsonage was built on the lot at Sixth and Wall. A third sanctuary was erected and dedicated in1973. Pastors succeeding the Rev. J. W. Slaton have been the Revs. H. G. Finley, R. F. Hamilton, H. A. Goodwin, H. C. Slaughter, J. Wood Arnspiger, James E. McClurkin, John R. Rice, C. A. Baxter, E. T. Smith, Vernie Pipes, E. C. Derr (two calls), Clifton Tennison, James O. Todd, J. Ed Byers, Meredith Wyatt, Jimmy Wilson, James Coffman, Murle Rogers, and Jim Scott. (1977)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Tower Station and U-Drop Inn — 0.6 mi
  Shamrock's 1936 Conoco station and cafe at the corner of Route 66 and US-83, sketched in the dirt with a nail, named by a schoolboy and saved by the town.
• Devil's Rope and Old Route 66 Museum — 20 mi
  Barbed wire and the Texas road in McLean's old brassiere factory: the fence that closed the open range, from the salesmen who sold it to the Panhandle ranches it divided.
• Phillips 66 Station, McLean — 20 mi
  A 1929 cottage-style Phillips 66 station on First Street in McLean, the town I-40 went around last and whose Route 66 business district stayed much as it was.
• Old Mobeetie Jail Museum — 23 mi
  The 1886 stone jail of the Panhandle's first county seat, the buffalo hunters' Hidetown on Sweetwater Creek that ran the courts for fifteen counties before losing its fort, railroad hopes and county seat.

More markers nearby

• Shamrock Methodist Church — steps away
• Shamrock's St. Patrick's Day Celebration — steps away
• Episcopal Church of St. Michael and All Angels — 0.5 mi
• Lela School — 5.5 mi