First Baptist Church of Bowie
Bowie, Montague County, Texas
Marker Inscription
FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH OF BOWIE On December 24, 1882, Baptist ministers H.M. Burroughs and W.A. Mason, a missionary from the Baptist General Convention, met with fourteen local Baptists to organize the first Baptist Church at Bowie with Burroughs as its first pastor. To celebrate their new church, the congregation sang “Am I a Soldier of the Cross?” From 1883 to 1902, the congregation worshipped in the masonic lodge building, also known as Rosser’s school for its weekday usage, located at the corner of Pecan and Lindsay Streets. Purchased from the masons in 1886, that building burned in 1902. The congregation rebuilt on the site, only to see the new building burn in 1909. The next church building lasted until 1943 when the newly renovated structure burned. The congregation consecrated a new white brick sanctuary on Easter Sunday in April 1944. In 1966, the church campus expanded to include an education building. Members worshipped in the 1944 church until 1981 when a new sanctuary on the corner of Tarrant and Lindsay Streets was dedicated. At that time the 1944 sanctuary became the fellowship hall. The third church pastor, J.C. Ward, preached at as many as seventeen churches in the north Texas circuit, sometimes being paid in eggs, chickens, and flour. In the early twentieth century, church member and author Fannie C. Potter wrote histories of both Montague County and the church. From its inception, the church’s congregation focused on missionary work, a focus that engendered several other local Baptist churches and community missions, including the multi-denominational Bowie mission. (2014)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
On Christmas Eve 1882, two Baptist ministers gathered fourteen local believers to organize Bowie's first Baptist congregation, celebrating with the hymn "Am I a Soldier of the Cross?" For two decades the church met in a Masonic lodge building that also served as Rosser's weekday school, before a run of fires repeatedly destroyed its sanctuaries in 1902, 1909, and 1943. Rebuilding each time, the congregation consecrated a white brick sanctuary on Easter 1944 and became a seedbed for other Baptist churches and missions across north Texas.
Why it matters
Its long history of fires, rebuilding, and mission-planting reflects how frontier congregations anchored the social and civic life of small Texas towns.
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Related people
- · Fannie C. Potter
Themes & tags
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