Speegleville Baptist Church

Speegleville has been moved by water more than once. The Handbook of Texas says Israel Washington Speegle, a Missouri blacksmith and farmer, arrived in 1849 and served as first postmaster when the post office opened in 1879. The 1896 school had one teacher and seventy-seven students. The first Waco Dam, finished in 1929, forced residents to move homes and businesses. A much larger dam, built from 1958 to 1965, submerged the old lake and the original townsite, and the community became scattered houses. The congregation's relocations follow that history.

What the plaque says

Speegleville Baptist Church Founded in the home of early settler and community namesake Israel Washington Speegle, this historic congregation formally organized in 1850 as Pleasant Grove Baptist Church. It was renamed Speegleville Baptist Church after the members joined with Greenwood Baptist Church in 1883. Part-time pastors and dedicated lay members have led the congregation throughout its history. Sunday School, a summer revival with baptisms in Speegleville Creek, music, worship and community outreach are counted among the ministries and programs of the Speegleville church. The congregation has relocated over the years to accommodate the building and enlargement of Lake Waco. (2001)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Waco Mammoth National Monument — 7.3 mi
  A bone bed on the Bosque River where a nursery herd of at least 19 Columbian mammoths was trapped and drowned by floodwater 65,000 to 72,000 years ago, left in place under a dig shelter.
• Dr Pepper Museum — 9.0 mi
  The 1906 bottling plant of the Artesian Manufacturing and Bottling Company, built where Dr Pepper outgrew a Waco drugstore soda fountain, now the Dr Pepper Museum.
• Waco Suspension Bridge — 9.1 mi
  A Brazos crossing opened in January 1870 as the longest single-span suspension bridge west of the Mississippi, tolled until 1889, closed to vehicles in 1971 and now walked.
• Armstrong Browning Library — 9.5 mi
  A three-story Italian Renaissance library on the Baylor campus built to hold A. J. Armstrong's Browning collection, dedicated in December 1951 and now, by its own account, the world's largest of Browning material.

More markers nearby

• Site of Waco Boating and Fishing Club — 3.9 mi
• Bosque River Crossing of the 1841 Texan Santa Fe Expedition — 4.3 mi
• Central Presbyterian Church — 5.0 mi
• Providence Sanitarium — 5.5 mi