Mertens Baptist Church

Mertens took its name from an engineer's wife. The Handbook of Texas says the station on the St. Louis, Arkansas and Texas line, built from Corsicana in 1887, was named for the wife of the engineer on the first train. J. K. Walling, the first permanent settler, ran the general store, served as station agent and became postmaster in 1888. The International and Great Northern crossed in 1902-03, making Mertens a railway junction. The town incorporated on January 12, 1914, with E. W. Bookout as first mayor, and its last cotton gin closed in 1978.

What the plaque says

Mertens Baptist Church On June 14, 1884, a small group of Baptists, led by W. J. Priddy, D. P. Sanders, and J. C. Osborne, met to organize a Baptist church. Originally known as Richland Baptist Church, the congregation worshiped in the Richland School until 1892, when they moved a few miles northwest to the town of Mertens. Now known as Mertens Baptist Church, the membership has grown and expanded its facilities over the years. Throughout its history the congregation has provided significant service and leadership to the residents of this part of Hill County. (1984)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Hill County Courthouse — 14 mi
  Wesley C. Dodson's limestone Second Empire courthouse of 1890 on the Hillsboro square, gutted by fire on New Year's Day 1993 and rededicated in 1999 after a rebuilding that two Willie Nelson concerts helped pay for.
• Ellis County Courthouse — 23 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.
• Petroleum Industry Park — 25 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 — 31 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.

More markers nearby

• Old Brandon Mill — 3.9 mi
• Hammel's Branch — 5.0 mi
• First Baptist Church of Milford — 5.3 mi
• Milford Cemetery — 5.4 mi