First Baptist Church Diboll
Diboll, Angelina County, Texas
Marker Inscription
In 1897, the Southern Pine Lumber Company built a Union Church shared by Baptists and Methodists of Diboll. The Baptists acquired land from Copes family heirs in 1915 and built a large frame church building in the 1920s. Reverend Martin Smith was called as the first full-time pastor in 1935, and he continued in that role for nine years. As the congregation continued to grow, the church incorporated in 1952 with George Smith, A.F. Vaughn and V.B. McKinney as trustees. New property near White Oak Creek was purchased and remains the site of the church today. The campus and the outreach have grown through the years to include helping neighbors, planting new churches and supporting missions around the world.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In 1897 the Southern Pine Lumber Company built a shared Union Church for the Baptists and Methodists of its mill town of Diboll. The Baptists secured their own land in 1915, raised a frame church in the 1920s, and called their first full-time pastor in 1935. Incorporating in 1952, the congregation moved to a site near White Oak Creek that it still occupies today.
Why it matters
The church's origins in a company-built Union Church illustrate how faith communities took root in the paternalistic lumber towns that dominated East Texas life.
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Related people
- · Rev. Martin Smith
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Diboll
Diboll, TX
Diboll grew up around a sawmill that T. L. L. Temple established in the East Texas pinelands in 1894, and by 1900 the Southern Pine Lumber Company ran its commissary, post office, churches, homes, and schools. The town took its name from the New Orleans family from whom Temple first bought timber rights. It stayed a company town until the 1950s, when residents were finally offered the chance to own their homes and shops, incorporating in 1962.
Thomas Lewis Latane Temple
Diboll, TX
A Virginia native, Thomas Lewis Latane Temple moved to Texarkana in 1877 and in 1893 organized the Southern Pine Lumber Company, buying up timberland in Angelina County. In 1894 he founded the town of Diboll around his main sawmill, building an East Texas lumber empire. He became known for early conservation and reforestation practices and for his philanthropy toward his workers and their town.
Old Diboll Library
Diboll, TX
Around 1908, lumber magnate T. L. L. Temple built this hall for the workers of his Southern Pine Lumber Company, pairing a downstairs reading room and recreation space with upstairs living quarters for family, single men, and schoolteachers. Over the decades it doubled as a Red Cross sewing room during World War I and a food distribution point for struggling families during the Depression. It is a rare survivor of the company-town institutions that once organized life in East Texas.
Southern Pine Lumber Company Commissary
Diboll, TX
The Southern Pine Lumber Company opened its first sawmill at Diboll around 1894 under T. L. L. Temple, and this commissary served the company town that grew up around it. Moved into its 1923 building, the store sold everything from groceries and medicine to furniture and coffins, with purchases made in company scrip—metal or waxed-paper tokens. It anchored daily life in Diboll until it closed in 1953.