Ash Creek Baptist Church
Azle, Tarrant County, Texas
Marker Inscription
On September 9, 1871, the Rev. J.C. Powers led 48 charter members in organizing Ash Creek Missionary Baptist Church. Guarding against Indians, Rev. Powers preached with a gun beside his Bible and men kept rifles on their knees. A meeting house was erected at this site in 1891 under the Rev. T.H. Sturges. In summers, brush arbors were built and prayer meetings held on the grounds. The women sold all eggs laid on Sundays to buy Sunday school literature. In 1965 a new auditorium was built and the original structure used for a Fellowship Hall. (1979)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
On September 9, 1871, the Rev. J.C. Powers gathered 48 charter members to organize the Ash Creek Missionary Baptist Church on the still-dangerous Texas frontier, where he was said to preach with a gun beside his Bible while men kept rifles across their knees. A meeting house rose here in 1891, and in summers the congregation built brush arbors for prayer meetings on the grounds. The women famously set aside every egg laid on Sundays to fund Sunday school literature.
Why it matters
This church captures frontier faith in its rawest form, where worship and survival went hand in hand and self-reliant congregations built lasting institutions from almost nothing.
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Related people
- · J.C. Powers
- · T.H. Sturges
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Ash Creek Cemetery
Azle, TX
The oldest known graves in this Azle burial ground belong to Dave Morrison and W. P. Gregg, both of whom died in 1874. The land was given in two one-acre parcels by Dr. James Azle Stewart, for whom the town of Azle is named, and by John Giles Reynolds, an early grist mill operator, and both men are buried here. A cemetery association formed in 1922 to keep records and care for the grounds, later adding land and a tabernacle, and the cemetery now holds more than 2,000 graves.
William M. Rice
Azle, TX
William M. Rice reached Texas in 1834 and served as an alcalde under Mexican rule before joining the Texas Revolution, where he was wounded at the Battle of San Jacinto in 1836. Over a long life he farmed and traded across Texas and Kansas, and during the Civil War supported the home front by making soldiers' hats and hauling supplies. He spent his final years in Tarrant County, a living thread through Texas's founding and its wars.
James Azle Steward
Azle, TX
A Tennessee-born physician, James Azle Steward reached this part of North Texas before 1860 and became one of its most respected pioneers. When he donated land for a townsite in 1883, the settlement — which had gone by several names — took his middle name and became Azle. He also gave ground for Ash Creek Cemetery and the Azle Christian Church, weaving himself into the community's civic and spiritual life.
First Methodist Church of Azle
Azle, TX
The Rev. Will A. Stephens and fifteen charter members organized this Methodist congregation in 1895, buying a building from the United Brethren Church and securing a parsonage. The church called its first full-time minister in 1942, and membership more than doubled by 1946, prompting a new education building and a brick sanctuary. A 1968 denominational merger gave it the name First United Methodist Church.