Eagle Springs Baptist Church
Oglesby, Coryell County, Texas
Marker Inscription
This congregation grew from an early Coryell County fellowship known as the Church of Onion Creek. Worshippers met in a log building until it burned in 1854. In 1858 this site was acquired for a new church building. In the same year, the Rev. John McLain, a Baptist Missionary, organized the Eagle Springs Baptist Church from the earlier congregation. Charter members inclded J. H. and Nancy Estep; Evan A. and Tabitha Culpepper; Wyatt, Naomi and Serepha Hall; F. M. Elmira, and Mary Grimes; Daniel Jones; and C. S. and Zura Strickland. By 1880 Eagle Springs was a thriving community with two grocery stores, two doctors' offices, a post office, and a school. The congregation grew also, with many baptisms being held in the Leon River. During the first decades of the twentieth century, families began moving away form Eagle Springs. The community school was closed in 1935, and in 1948 members of Eagle Springs Baptist Curch voted to disband. The church building was retained, however, for reunions and occasional services. It is one of the few remaining structures in the Eagle Springs Community.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Organized in 1858 by the Baptist missionary John McLain from an older fellowship known as the Church of Onion Creek, Eagle Springs Baptist grew as its namesake community thrived, baptizing new members in the waters of the Leon River. By 1880 the surrounding settlement boasted grocery stores, doctors, a post office, and a school, but families drifted away in the new century, the school closed in 1935, and the congregation disbanded in 1948. The church building endured for reunions and remains one of the few structures left of the vanished community.
Why it matters
Eagle Springs traces the full arc of a Central Texas frontier settlement—founding, prosperity, and quiet abandonment—that unfolded across the American landscape.
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Related people
- · Rev. John McLain
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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