White Mound Baptist Church

The community of Mound took its name from White Mound School, which was named for a nearby white chalk hill, according to the Handbook of Texas. Settlers arrived in the early 1850s, making it one of the oldest communities in the county. In 1882 the Texas and St. Louis Railway laid track from Waco to Gatesville through Mound, and a post office opened in 1884 with Isaac Franks as postmaster. The school district consolidated with Gatesville in 1971, and the railroad abandoned the track between Gatesville and Lime City the next year.

What the plaque says

White Mound Baptist Church Originally known as the Baptist Church of Christ at White Mound, the White Mound Baptist Church was organized on September 14, 1874, at the base of White Mound Hill in Coryell County. The church shared a small log building with the White Mound School, established in 1861. Split logs were used as desks, benches and seats. In the early 1880s, the school moved to a new location, leaving the building to the church, where they continued to meet until early 1898. In 1897, church members purchased two acres of land to erect a church building. Under the direction of Lafe Lam, an arbor (tabernacle) was built in march 1898, with shutters installed that winter. Elders John McClain and J.M. Wright led the congregation through its first service there. The tabernacle served as the church sanctuary until 1914 when the present sanctuary was completed. Designed and built by contractor Aaron Fellers, the sanctuary included 14-foot ceilings and large frosted glass windows. The glass was replaced with stained glass in 1987. Wings were added in 1947 to accommodate growth as well as a fellowship hall in 1949. In 1917, a parsonage was built on the site and where the youth hall now sits. Since 1920, Baylor University (Waco) and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (Fort Worth) have sent their best young men to the church, replacing early pioneer preachers. Many of these went on to have successful tenures at urban churches. Through youth camps, partnerships with other churches and communities, and local and foreign missions, the White Mound Baptist Church has made a significant impact on the community and areas beyond Coryell County. (2017)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Mother Neff State Park — 9.9 mi
  A Leon River park that grew from six acres Isabella Neff left the state in her 1921 will, where Civilian Conservation Corps Company 817 built a stone tower, a pavilion and roads in the 1930s.
• Temple Railroad and Heritage Museum — 25 mi
  The Santa Fe depot of 1911 in a railroad town that began in 1880 as a construction camp, now a museum with locomotives and cars parked beside the active rail yard.
• Waco Mammoth National Monument — 32 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.

More markers nearby

• Coryell County — 5.1 mi
• Fort Gates — 5.2 mi
• First Baptist Church of Oglesby — 8.7 mi
• First Baptist Church of Gatesville — 8.8 mi