Union Primitive Baptist Church

Primitive Baptists, the Handbook explains, trace to the antimissionary side of an early Texas Baptist quarrel. Their leader Daniel Parker's Pilgrim Church was organized in Illinois in 1833 and met in Texas in January 1834. In 1837 it authorized Parker to organize Primitive Baptist churches. Antimissionary Baptists objected to mission societies, Sunday schools, Bible societies and seminaries as unscriptural and a threat to each congregation's independence. They lost ground to Zachariah Morrell's cooperating Baptists, whose heirs formed the Baptist General Convention of Texas in 1885. Union was organized seven years later.

What the plaque says

Union Primitive Baptist Church Organized 1892 by Elders A. P. Koen, W. G. Green, W. C. Burks, and Deacons F. W. Bryan, J. H. Caudle. Charter members were Deacon A. B. Neal, Messrs. J. C. Clayton, J. W. Hamilton, G. R. Hamilton, John Manning, and J. A. Stevens, Clerk; also Mmes. M. J. Hamilton, L. J. Stevens, P. Neal, and H. D. Clayton. Early pastors were elders W. G. Green, A. P. Koen, and J. R. Sims. Except for one leave, Elder Len Dalton has been pastor since 1915. Assistant Pastors: Elders G. Dalton and C. T. Venable. First Deacons ordained: M. C. Morris and J. A. Stevens, whose son F. C. Stevens succeeded him as Clerk. (1968)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Hamilton County Courthouse — 12 mi
  A limestone courthouse of 1886-87 on the Hamilton square, built after the county's 1878 courthouse burned, enlarged in the early 1930s and rededicated in 2012 after restoration.
• Dublin Bottling Works — 19 mi
  The Erath County plant that bottled Dr Pepper with cane sugar from 1891 until a 2012 settlement ended its Dr Pepper license, and that still makes its own sodas the same way.

More markers nearby

• Lamkin — 0.3 mi
• Gustine — 8.3 mi
• Cora — 8.3 mi
• Carlton Cemetery — 8.4 mi