Liberty Baptist Church

The church counted its birth by people, not buildings. A 160th anniversary history says eleven pioneers constituted it on February 16, 1850 at Henry Cook's two-room cabin on White Rock Creek. Elder Eli Witt, the first pastor, was a circuit preacher who founded several North Texas churches and rode horseback across the prairie to serve them. The congregation moved south to this land, where a white frame building dedicated in 1885 stood until it was razed in 1975. The church is now known as Willow Bend Church and marked its 160th anniversary on February 21, 2010.

What the plaque says

Liberty Baptist Church Settlers met for worship in Henry Cook's remote log cabin known as "Lonesome House". Liberty Baptist Church was formed on Feb. 16, 1850. Elder Eli Witt served until 1856 as the first pastor. In a few years the congregation built a log meetinghouse on this land which belonged to J.F. Purcell. In 1885 a new white frame structure was erected. The following year Purcell deeded this one-acre tract to the fellowship. This brick structure was erected in 1976. Liberty Baptist Church is the oldest Baptist congregation in continuous service in Collin county. (1979)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Heard Natural Science Museum & Wildlife Sanctuary — 15 mi
  A 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.
• Dallas Museum of Art — 17 mi
  A city art museum that began as the Dallas Art Association in 1903, grew up in Fair Park, and has stood in the Arts District since 1984 under a forty-foot barrel vault.
• The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza — 17 mi
  A plow-company warehouse of 1903, identified by the Warren Commission as the building Oswald fired from, now a museum on its sixth and seventh floors above Dealey Plaza.
• Fair Park — 17 mi
  The State Fair of Texas grounds since 1886, where the 1936 Texas Centennial Exposition left one of the country's greatest concentrations of Art Deco exposition buildings.

More markers nearby

• First Baptist Church, Hebron — 2.3 mi
• Frankford — 2.7 mi
• First Baptist Church of Renner — 3.2 mi
• Baccus Cemetery — 3.6 mi