First Baptist Church of Bronte
Bronte, Coke County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Organized by visiting minister W.G. Green and a congregation of three on June 19, 1887, the Baptist church in Bronte met in homes. In 1890 a brush arbor was built and the Rev. R.M. Cumbie was called as first pastor. Services were later held in the community school in winter and the brush arbor in summer. A Sunday school was organized in 1901 and the first church building was dedicated in 1907. A new building was completed in 1951. From its beginning, this church has been involved in missionary and community activities. (1987)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
On a June day in 1887, a visiting minister and just three believers organized a Baptist church in the West Texas town of Bronte. They met first in homes, then under a brush arbor, and in cold weather in the community school, calling their first regular pastor in 1890. A Sunday school followed in 1901, the first church building in 1907, and a new sanctuary in 1951.
Why it matters
The humble brush-arbor beginnings of this congregation capture how faith communities took root on the sparsely settled West Texas frontier, growing from a handful of neighbors into lasting institutions.
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Related people
- · W.G. Green
- · R.M. Cumbie
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
First Methodist Church of Bronte
Bronte, TX
This West Texas congregation began in the summer of 1890, when a handful of worshipers gathered under a brush arbor along East Kickapoo Creek to organize a church. They met in an old schoolhouse before raising their first sanctuary in 1907, replaced by a new building in 1951. Now First United Methodist Church, the congregation has kept a steady missionary focus across more than a century.
Bronte
Bronte, TX
Known first as Oso and Broncho in the early 1880s, this Coke County town was formally named in 1890 for the English novelist Charlotte Brontë and incorporated in 1907. Its economy rested on ranching in the semi-arid country at the eastern edge of the Permian Basin. Major oil and gas development after 1948 added a new chapter to the old cattle town.
Townsite of Marie
Norton, TX
At the turn of the 20th century, settlers drawn by good farmland and climate began putting down roots in this corner of Runnels County. When a post office opened in 1906, the little community took the name Marie in honor of early settler Walter Gentry's wife. It never grew beyond a store, gin, blacksmith shop, and a schoolhouse that doubled as a Sunday church, and it faded as families drifted toward larger towns.
W. H. Brown
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Born in Georgia, W. H. "Billy" Brown came to Texas with his parents in 1857 and, like his brother John, rode as a Texas Ranger, serving through the second half of 1874. The frontier era he policed was closing violently: Brown was killed while trying to recover horses stolen in a raid, becoming the last man slain by Indians in Runnels County. His death marked the end of open frontier conflict in that corner of West Texas.