George W. Truett

Truett's reach beyond Dallas shows in the Handbook of Texas. In 1918 President Wilson named him one of twenty men sent by the YMCA to preach to American troops in Europe. He toured South America in the summer of 1930 and the Baptist missions of the Far East in 1935 and 1936, and in 1934 British Baptists chose him to give the main address at the Spurgeon centenary in the Royal Albert Hall in London. He published ten volumes of sermons, among them We Would See Jesus in 1915, and died on July 7, 1944.

What the plaque says

George W. Truett North Carolina native George W. Truett followed his parents to Texas in 1889, and settled first in Whitewright in Grayson county. He worked on the family farm, attended Grayson Junior College, and became an active member of the Baptist Congregation. A gifted teacher and speaker, Truett was ordained a Baptist minister by the congregation in 1890. Truett had also gained a reputation as a skillful fund-raiser, and in 1890 he was appointed financial secretary of Baylor University, which was burdened with a $92,000 debt. Within 23 months, Truett had eliminated the debt. In 1893 he enrolled at Baylor and paid his tuition by becoming pastor of East Waco Baptist Church. He married Josephine Jenkins in 1894. Truett graduated in 1897 and became pastor of the First Baptist Church, Dallas, a position he held for 47 years. The membership grew from 715 to 7,804. In 1904 the Texas Baptist Sanitarium, later the Baylor Hospital, was founded as a result of his fund raising efforts. He also raised millions of dollars for the Southern Baptist convention, served as an officer in numerous organizations, and traveled worldwide on preaching tours. Following a distinguished career in service to others, Truett died at age 77. (1997)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum — 0.4 mi
  The official state repository of Texas Ranger memorabilia, opened in 1968 in Fort Fisher Park on the Brazos, named for a Ranger post of 1837 whose site no one has located.
• Armstrong Browning Library — 0.5 mi
  A three-story Italian Renaissance library on the Baylor campus built to hold A. J. Armstrong's Browning collection, dedicated in December 1951 and now, by its own account, the world's largest of Browning material.
• Dr Pepper Museum — 0.6 mi
  The 1906 bottling plant of the Artesian Manufacturing and Bottling Company, built where Dr Pepper outgrew a Waco drugstore soda fountain, now the Dr Pepper Museum.
• Waco Suspension Bridge — 0.9 mi
  A Brazos crossing opened in January 1870 as the longest single-span suspension bridge west of the Mississippi, tolled until 1889, closed to vehicles in 1971 and now walked.

More markers nearby

• Hebrew Rest — 0.2 mi
• Baylor University — 0.2 mi
• William McKendree Lambdin — 0.3 mi
• Samuel Johan Forsgard — 0.3 mi