Rev. George Washington Baines

Baines served eight Texas pastorates: Huntsville, Independence, Anderson, Fairfield, Springfield, Butler, Florence and Salado. The Handbook of Texas dates his friendship with Sam Houston to Huntsville in 1850 and says he edited the Texas Baptist from 1855 to 1860. His first wife, Melissa, and their youngest son died on his farm near Fairfield, and he remarried in June 1865. He moved to Salado in 1867 and died there of malaria on December 28, 1882, and is buried in Salado. Baylor gave him an honorary master's degree in 1861; poor health had ended his Alabama studies in his senior year.

What the plaque says

Rev. George Washington Baines (1809-1882) Noted Texas religious leader. Pastor, 1850, to Gen. and Mrs. Sam Houston. Founded first Baptist paper in state, 1855. In difficult Civil War years, served as president of Baylor University, 1861-63, and pastor of the First Baptist Church in Fairfield, 1864-66. A North Carolinian. Uneducated, at 21 he cut and rafted timber to pay for schooling. Received A.M. Degree, University of Alabama. Moved to Arkansas. Founded 7 churches. Served in Arkansas Legislature, 1843-44. Lived and preached in Louisiana, 1845-49. He had 10 children. His wife, Melissa Ann (Butler), died here in wartime. He made her coffin with his own hands. One of their great-grandsons, Lyndon Baines Johnson, became 36th President of the United States, the first Texan to receive this high honor. Churches were vital to military and civilian morale in Confederate Texas. Rev. Baines and other ministers led their congregations in prayer days, soldier relief work, aid to families, distribution of Bibles. They also inspired numerous conversions. Later Rev. Baines served as agent for the Baptist State Convention and its education commission. (1965)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Blind Lemon Memorial Cemetery — 18 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.
• Confederate Reunion Grounds State Historic Site — 24 mi
  Where Limestone County Confederate veterans gathered each summer from 1888, later a water supplier in the Mexia oil boom, now a Texas Historical Commission site on the Navasota River.
• Old Fort Parker — 25 mi
  A rebuilt 1830s family stockade near the Navasota River, where a May 1836 attack killed men of the Parker settlement and took five captives, among them nine-year-old Cynthia Ann Parker.

More markers nearby

• Freestone County — steps away
• Val Verde Battery, C.S.A. — steps away
• Site of Law Office, General John Gregg — steps away
• Butler Church Bell — 0.2 mi