City of Caldwell

Caldwell, TX

This Presbyterian congregation was gathered by the Rev. Hugh Wilson, a pioneering missionary who carried his faith across the rough Texas frontier. Though the first surviving record dates to 1850, the church likely formed soon after Caldwell itself was founded in 1840, and in the 1880s its members worshiped in the local Methodist building. A fire destroyed their first sanctuary in 1906, but the congregation endured as a link to the earliest days of Burleson County.

Caldwell, TX

Organized in 1840, this Methodist congregation is among the oldest in Texas, once counted as one of twelve appointments on the Nashville Circuit during the days of the Republic. In 1841 the Republic granted the church a wooded grove as a building site, and after Caldwell became its own circuit in 1852 the first sanctuary rose in 1854. By 1890 the growing congregation had built anew and hosted the Texas Methodist Conference; the present building was raised in 1927 on that historic 1841 ground.

Caldwell, TX

Founded as Dove Church in 1843 in the home of Laban Rice, this congregation was organized by noted frontier ministers R. E. B. Baylor and Noah Byars, the latter serving as first pastor. Among those ordained here was the influential Rev. B. H. Carroll; after several sanctuaries, two lost to fire, the present building rose in 1928-29.

Caldwell, TX

Freemasonry took root in Caldwell soon after Burleson County's creation in 1846, when nine Masons petitioned for a lodge and met in the county courthouse to install their first officers in 1849. Chartered in 1850 as Warren Lodge No. 56—by local tradition honoring the Revolutionary patriot Dr. Joseph Warren—the lodge counted among its early members a future sheriff, the courthouse contractor, and surveyor George B. Erath, who platted Caldwell and later served in the Texas Senate. The Masons built their hall in 1854, laid the courthouse cornerstone in 1889, and founded a public cemetery in 1890.