First Independent Baptist Church of Corsicana

The National Register nomination for this church reads its name as a statement. Simon Perry and other formerly enslaved people founded the congregation in 1868 as Second African Baptist Church, and 'independent' marked a break from outside oversight. Disputes sent members out to found Wilgo Baptist, and the nomination says the church was dynamited, injuring a member, before another group left to form Harmony Baptist. In 1928 Pastor A. L. Moore added 975 members. The 1918 building is a wood-frame Classical Revival church with four Ionic columns, possibly designed by Moore.

What the plaque says

First Independent Baptist Church of Corsicana A group of former slaves, led by Simon Perry, organized the second African Baptist Church in 1868. Following an 1886 storm that destroyed the sanctuary on Fourth Avenue, the members purchased this property and constructed a new building. In 1918 they completed the present structure. The church name was changed in 1929 to reflect the congregation's independence from other religious groups. Three area Baptist congregations, Wilgo, Harmony, and Sixth Avenue, were started by members of the fellowship. (1980)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Petroleum Industry Park — 0.6 mi
  The pipes and drilling tower mark where a city water well struck oil on June 9, 1894, the start of the first Texas field to produce oil and gas in important quantities.
• Blind Lemon Memorial Cemetery — 21 mi
  The Freestone County grave of the Texas blues singer Blind Lemon Jefferson, who recorded for Paramount in Chicago from 1926 and died there in December 1929.
• Ellis County Courthouse — 30 mi
  J. Riely Gordon's courthouse of 1897 in Pecos red sandstone and pink granite, with twenty-one carved stone faces and two cornerstones left by a quarrel over its building.

More markers nearby

• American Well & Prospecting Company — steps away
• Rex Ingram — 0.2 mi
• Former Site of Fred Douglass - G.W. Jackson School — 0.2 mi
• Corsicana Newspapers — 0.2 mi