St. Peter's Baptist Church

Storms swept away the early records, so the church is known through its families. Holt, Ludington, Green, Fisher, Alexander, Patterson and Lewis are names recalled at the 1998 marker dedication, along with the longtime pastor John Holt. The Handbook's school counts show what the town offered the congregation's children: in 1904, 26 Black pupils and one teacher in Matagorda against 115 white pupils and two teachers, and in 1937, 37 Black pupils and one teacher against 183 and nine. Speakers called churches and schools the community's most respected institutions.

What the plaque says

St. Peter's Baptist Church Though early records for St. Peter's Baptist Church were lost in heavy storms, the church is likely to have been organized by area African Americans in the 1870s. The heirs of Samuel Rhoads Fisher, who signed the Texas Declaration of Independence, deeded land on this site to the trustees of St. Peter's Baptist Church in 1879. After the St. Peter's Church building burned in 1928, members of the Matagorda Baptist Church gave their building to the St. Peter's congregation. In 1998 St. Peter's Baptist Church continues to worship in the traditions of their founders. (1998)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Levi Jordan Plantation State Historic Site — 29 mi
  A sugar and cotton plantation on the San Bernard River whose enslaved builders and their descendants left one of the best-preserved African American archeological sites in Texas.
• Matagorda Island — 37 mi
  A 38-mile barrier island reached only by boat from Port O'Connor, with a lighthouse of 1852, the ghosts of two towns and a fort, and no water, power or cars.

More markers nearby

• City of Matagorda — 0.3 mi
• Christ Church — 0.3 mi
• Matagorda Lodge No. 7, A.F. & A.M. — 0.3 mi
• Matagorda Methodist Church — 0.3 mi