HistoricSiteMarkers
Early Republic

Concord Missionary Baptist Church

Robbins, Leon County, Texas

Marker Inscription

The historic Concord Missionary Baptist Church was organized on April 21, 1855 by pioneer settlers prior to the establishment of the community of Concord. The first pastor was the Reverend W. A. Walker who is buried in the Concord Cemetery near the church. Isaac Burleson donated the land for a building. In 1855, a Greek Revival style building was erected. The deed for the church was recorded on June 7, 1856. The church was remodeled in 1961. On September 2, 2011, a Labor Day weekend wildfire destroyed the historic Concord Missionary Baptist Church sanctuary. (1970, 2012)

Erected by Texas Historical Commission

The Story

Organized in April 1855 by pioneer settlers before the community of Concord even took shape, this Missionary Baptist congregation raised a Greek Revival meetinghouse on land donated by Isaac Burleson, its first pastor the Rev. W. A. Walker. The church anchored its Leon County neighborhood for more than a century and a half. Tragedy struck on Labor Day weekend in 2011, when a wildfire swept through and destroyed the historic sanctuary.

Why it matters

The congregation's long life and sudden loss illustrate both the endurance of frontier-founded institutions and the vulnerability of Texas's wooden landmarks to the wildfires that periodically scour the state.

Own a business near here? Add it to the map.

Related people

  • · Rev. W. A. Walker
  • · Isaac Burleson

Themes & tags

Westward ExpansionFrontier HistoryChurch

Nearby & related markers

Old Bowling School and Masonic Lodge

Marquez, TX

Around 1860, settlers on the Texas prairie near Marquez raised a single building to serve double duty — a schoolhouse for the community's children and a meeting hall for its Masonic lodge. In a thinly settled frontier county, such a structure was the civic heart of the neighborhood, hosting lessons, lodge business, and gatherings under one roof. The tradition endured in the annual Father's Day reunion that still draws descendants back to the site.

Manaen Turnbull Smith

Jewett, TX

Georgia-born Manaen Turnbull Smith arrived in present-day Shelby County in 1822, during the era of Mexican Texas, and took up the cause of independence—serving in the Texas Army and taking part in the Siege of Bexar in December 1835. After the revolution he farmed, ranched, and traded land across several counties before settling in Leon County and later running a hotel in Jewett, where he died in 1886.

Long Hollow Community

Marquez, TX

Named for the pioneer Long family, this Leon County settlement of farm families centered on a school built in the 1880s that doubled as church and community hall. When it burned in 1918 neighbors rebuilt it larger together, and a store so small that customers were served through a window kept the community supplied — until the school consolidated with Marquez in 1929 and the little store closed with it.

Leon County Courthouse

Centerville, TX

Built in 1887 of locally made slate brick, the Leon County Courthouse is one of the oldest Texas courthouses still standing in its original form. The county dates to 1846, and its seat moved from Leona to Centerville in 1850, where two earlier courthouses stood on this same ground before it. It was named a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark in 1966.