St. Matthew Missionary Baptist Church

The people of St. Matthew's built a congregation while working other people's land. By 1880, 37 percent of Burleson County farmers were tenants; the share reached 53 percent in 1890 and 61 percent in 1910 as cotton spread and the crop-lien system took hold. The Handbook of Texas says most of the county's Black residents became tenant farmers. Riley Williams, who led the church's organization, also organized Shiloh, and both congregations grew up inside that cotton and crop-lien economy.

What the plaque says

St. Matthew Missionary Baptist Church Founded by freed African American men and women after the Civil War, Saint Matthew Colored Baptist Church was organized in the 1870s-1880s under the leadership of the Reverend Riley Williams (1812-1912). The church supported the upliftment of the community, including local education efforts. In 1893, M.J. Phegley conveyed one acre of land for a church site. Around 1918, the Rev. Benjamin Harris led the church to build a new sanctuary northeast of Cedar Creek. The Rev. Horace Nunn undertook major building upgrades. Annual traditions include homecoming and family day the fourth Sunday in August. For over 130 years, St. Matthew has served the spiritual needs of the surrounding community. (2023)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• George H.W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum — 20 mi
  The library of the forty-first president on the Texas A&M campus, opened in 1997, where George and Barbara Bush and their daughter Robin are buried in a family plot on the grounds.
• 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.
• Calvert — 24 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.
• Independence and Old Baylor Park — 29 mi
  A crossroads north of Brenham that was the richest town in Texas when it won Baylor University in 1845, refused the railroad, and lost the college to Waco and Belton in 1886.

More markers nearby

• Elizabeth Chapel Methodist Church — 4.7 mi
• Cooks Point United Methodist Church — 4.7 mi
• Fort Tenoxtitlan — 4.7 mi
• Cooks Point — 5.1 mi