Primitive Baptist Church of Tioga

Tioga owed its start to a railroad crew and its fame to a burned hand. The Texas and Pacific reached the site in 1881, and the crew drew water from a local well. In 1884 a blacksmith named Matt Rains reportedly healed a burn by bathing it in that water, and several companies began bottling it as mineral water. Visitors were said to arrive by the trainload. Gene Autry, born in Tioga, graduated from its high school in 1925; a 1937 effort to rename the town Autry Springs did not succeed. Bathhouses burned in 1947 and were rebuilt.

What the plaque says

Primitive Baptist Church of Tioga Organized 1884, in Lone Star; moved to Tioga, 1893. Present church built, 1948. T. N. Cutler, first pastor. Sam Rayburn, Speaker, U. S. House of Representatives was baptized here 1956, by H. G. Ball, Elder. Ball conducted Rayburn's funeral in Bonham, 1961. Four presidents attended. (1967)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Great Hanging Memorial — 17 mi
  Two granite monuments in a Gainesville park, dedicated in 2014, for the Cooke County men the Confederate militia hanged in October 1862 on suspicion of Unionism.
• Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge — 21 mi
  A 1946 refuge on the Big Mineral Arm of Lake Texoma, laid over land bought for Denison Dam and the site of the vanished railroad town of Hagerman, now a winter stop for geese.
• Denton County Courthouse-on-the-Square — 21 mi
  An 1896 courthouse by W. C. Dodson in Denton limestone, pink granite and two sandstones, restored in 2004, now a free county museum on a lawn holding the grave of John B. Denton.
• Heard Natural Science Museum & Wildlife Sanctuary — 27 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.

More markers nearby

• Tioga United Methodist Church — steps away
• City of Pilot Point — 5.5 mi
• Hiram Lodge No. 433, A. F. & A. M. — 6.5 mi
• Mountain Springs School — 7.6 mi