Historical Marker
James Fowler Biggers
Bailey, Fannin County · Texas
Erected 1982
Biggers belonged to the Primitive Baptists, who took shape in the 1820s and 1830s when many Baptists backed mission societies, Bible societies and seminaries and these churches refused. Wikipedia dates the formal split to the Black Rock Address of September 28, 1832. Primitive Baptists, also called Old School or anti-missions Baptists, generally sing without instruments and reject Sunday school. Their churches are governed by each congregation alone, with no mission boards above them. The plaque names White Rock Primitive Baptist Church as the one Biggers helped establish in Fannin County.
What the plaque says
James Fowler Biggers (January 21, 1829 - October 26, 1914) A native of South Carolina, James Fowler Biggers grew up in Mississippi. In 1869 he and other members of his family traveled to Texas by wagon train and settled in Fannin County. Biggers helped establish the White Rock Primitive Baptist Church and often serve the congregation as a lay preacher. He was also instrumental in organizing a school in the church building and in establishing the White Rock Community Cemetery. (1982)
Where it stands
33.47443, -96.19333 · Directions
Worth the stop nearby
- Sam Rayburn House State Historic Site — 6.7 miThe two-story farmhouse west of Bonham that the longtime Speaker of the House built in 1916 and kept as his home, left as he lived in it and open as a museum since 1975.
- Audie Murphy / American Cotton Museum — 25 miA Greenville museum of Hunt County's military heroes, including Audie Murphy, and of cotton, which keeps the engine of what it says was the world's largest inland cotton compress.
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- Heard Natural Science Museum & Wildlife Sanctuary — 33 miA 289-acre sanctuary in McKinney that Bessie Heard founded at the age of 80, with five habitats, a 50-acre wetland and 6.5 miles of trails.
More markers nearby
- First Baptist Church of Bailey — 3.1 mi
- Joseph F. Fenner — 3.3 mi
- Ashley Lodge No. 681, A. F. & A. M. — 3.3 mi
- Grove Hill — 3.3 mi