First Baptist Church of Winona

Winona sits on the old Shreveport-Dallas Road and became a station on the Tyler Tap Railway in 1877, the town this congregation joined when it moved in 1900. The Handbook of Texas says residents supported two Baptist churches and a Methodist Episcopal church by 1914, when the town had about 600 people. Its 1903 school system had one school for white students and two for Black students. In 1912 lightning struck another Baptist congregation, Winona Liberty Baptist Church, during services, killing one person and fatally trampling another. Camp Fannin brought business back in the 1940s.

What the plaque says

First Baptist Church of Winona Established in 1849 by Pastor William H. Ray and 15 charter members, this church was originally called Harris Creek Baptist Church. The congregation met once a month in members' homes until a pine log church building was erected in 1850. A new sanctuary was constructed in 1855 about a mile from Winona. In 1858 the church established a cemetery west of the church building, later used as a community graveyard. African Americans were members of this church until Emancipation, but buried their dead in a separate section of the cemetery. A cyclone destroyed the sanctuary in 1878, but members rebuilt that year. In 1900 the church relocated to Winona, and in 1916 began holding services twice a month. A two-story brick church building was erected in 1927, and in 1929 the congregation changed its name to Winona Baptist Church. In 1941 the church voted to hold services full time, and in 1947 changed its name to the First Baptist Church of Winona. A centennial celebration was held in 1949. A larger facility was built in 1980, and additions were erected in 1987. The congregation offers traditional programs to its members and continues to support a variety of community outreach activities. (1997)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Tyler State Park — 6.7 mi
  A 985-acre park eight miles north of Tyler, built by the Civilian Conservation Corps from 1935 to 1941 around a 64-acre spring-fed lake, with more than 13 miles of trails.
• Camp Ford Historic Park — 8.8 mi
  A free county park north of Tyler on the site of the largest Confederate prison camp west of the Mississippi, with a kiosk, an interpretive trail and a historical society museum downtown.
• Goodman-LeGrand House and Museum — 12 mi
  A Tyler house begun in 1859 as four rooms, enlarged by the Goodman family over 73 years, and left to the city in 1939 with its furnishings, in a garden that fills a city block.
• Tyler Rose Garden and Rose Museum — 13 mi
  More than 38,000 rose bushes of about 600 cultivars in a free city garden, beside a museum of the Texas Rose Festival, which began in 1933, and of the rose industry.

More markers nearby

• Elisha Everett Lott — 1.4 mi
• In the vicinity of Harris' place — 3.3 mi
• Nicholas Wren — 3.3 mi
• Starrville Community — 3.4 mi