Mobeetie First Baptist Church

Before denominations had buildings of their own, Old Mobeetie worshiped in shared space. A rock schoolhouse built in 1889 to replace a wooden one also served as a union church and community center, and at Christmas and other holidays residents held horse races and dances. In 1893 a revival meeting produced 300 conversions, and Baptist and Methodist churches followed. After the railroad drew the town north, the old site emptied; by 1984 many of its houses were abandoned and falling down, while the rock schoolhouse survived as a private residence.

What the plaque says

Mobeetie First Baptist Church Soon after Wheeler County was organized in 1879, a Union church was formed at Old Mobeetie (2 mi. S). On April 2, 1894, the 13 Baptist members of the fellowship organized this church. Services were held in public buildings until 1919, when a sanctuary was built. After, the Panhandle & Santa Fe Railroad bypassed Old Mobeetie, the town declined, and the church building was moved here in 1942. Through its heritage of service to two communities, Old and New Mobeetie, the church has played a major role in the development of the surrounding area. (1983)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Old Mobeetie Jail Museum — 1.2 mi
  The 1886 stone jail of the Panhandle's first county seat, the buffalo hunters' Hidetown on Sweetwater Creek that ran the courts for fifteen counties before losing its fort, railroad hopes and county seat.
• Roberts County Museum — 15 mi
  The county museum in Miami's old Santa Fe depot, holding mammoth bones and Clovis points from a 1934 dig, in the cow town that has held a cow-calling contest since 1949.
• Devil's Rope and Old Route 66 Museum — 23 mi
  Barbed wire and the Texas road in McLean's old brassiere factory: the fence that closed the open range, from the salesmen who sold it to the Panhandle ranches it divided.
• Phillips 66 Station, McLean — 23 mi
  A 1929 cottage-style Phillips 66 station on First Street in McLean, the town I-40 went around last and whose Route 66 business district stayed much as it was.

More markers nearby

• Mobeetie Post Office — steps away
• Mobeetie United Methodist Church — steps away
• Mobeetie — 1.2 mi
• Buffalo Soldiers at Fort Elliott — 1.5 mi