Squaw Creek Primitive Baptist Church

Primitive Baptist churches in Texas grew from the Pilgrim congregation. On September 2, 1837, Pilgrim Church gave elders Daniel Parker and Garrison Greenwood authority to organize Primitive Baptist churches and ordain ministers and deacons, and between 1837 and 1845 they formed eight, from Hopewell in Nacogdoches County to Mound Prairie. On October 17, 1840, messengers from four churches met at Hopewell to organize the Union Association of Regular Baptist Faith and Order. Pilgrim Church itself, near Elkhart, built a box meetinghouse in 1857, a frame church in 1890 and a one-room brick church in 1929.

What the plaque says

Squaw Creek Primitive Baptist Church Ten charter members constituted Squaw Creek Primitive Baptist Church in 1901, and elder S. N. Redford served as pastor from 1901 until 1907. Services were held in homes and in the Squaw Creek School until 1911, when members began meeting in the Bethel Missionary Baptist Church building, which they purchased in 1924. New facilities were constructed over time to meet the congregation's needs. A brush arbor at the rear of the property sheltered meetings of the Friendship Association of Primitive Baptists. Annual and, later, triennial camp meetings began in 1963 on the third weekend in July. The Squaw Creek Church continues to serve the Doss Valley and Primitive Baptists across the state. (2002)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Eckert James River Bat Cave Preserve — 15 mi
  A limestone cave on the James River where about four million Mexican free-tailed bats raise their young each summer, kept open to visitors by a family's gift.
• Enchanted Rock State Natural Area — 18 mi
  A dome of pink granite north of Fredericksburg that rises some 385 feet above Sandy Creek, creaks as it cools at night, and has drawn people for thousands of years.
• Vereins Kirche and Main Street — 19 mi
  The octagonal Society Church on Fredericksburg's market square, rebuilt in stone in the 1930s, beside a main street laid out like a Rhine village.
• National Museum of the Pacific War — 19 mi
  A museum of the war in the Pacific in Chester Nimitz's hometown, dedicated at his request to the two million who served with him, with a garden given by Japan.

More markers nearby

• Doss School — 0.6 mi
• Lange's Mill — 2.3 mi
• Squaw Creek Cemetery — 4.3 mi
• The Marschall-Meusebach Cemetery — 7.8 mi