Site of Elmo Baptist Church

The plaque blames a declining population for Elmo's end; the Handbook gives the county's numbers. In the 1930s falling prices, worn soil and the boll weevil pushed tenant families off the land, and Robertson County's farms dropped from 4,065 to 2,834. Cotton held on through the 1950s, but in the 1960s ranching replaced much of the farming, and the county's people fell from 25,710 in 1940 to 14,389 in 1970, the year after Elmo's members joined the Calvert church. The marker stands in a private front yard and is not open to visitors.

What the plaque says

Site of Elmo Baptist Church S.W. Cox started a Sunday School at the Elmo schoolhouse (125 ft. SE) in 1899. Later that year, with the help of the Rev. R.M. Crawford, a Baptist church was organized. A separate sanctuary was built in 1907 and Baptist ministerial students served the congregation as weekend pastors. The school consolidated with the Calvert district (3 mi. W) in the 1940s and the church building was moved adjacent to the schoolhouse. Despite the declining population of the area, members continued to worship here until 1969, when they merged with the First Baptist Church of Calvert. (1980)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Calvert — 3.2 mi
  A railroad cotton town of 1868 on State Highway 6 that claimed the largest cotton gin in the world and elected Black men to county and state office during Reconstruction.
• Milam County Courthouse and Jail — 23 mi
  Cameron's 1892 Renaissance Revival courthouse and the 1895 St. Louis-built jail beside it, now the county museum, are listed together on the National Register.

More markers nearby

• Rev. Robert Crawford — 2.2 mi
• Virginia Field Park — 2.8 mi
• The Parish Carriage House — 2.8 mi
• First Baptist Church of Calvert — 2.9 mi