First Baptist Church of Cameron
Cameron, Milam County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Itinerant ministers J. W. D. Creath and David Fisher organized this church in 1853. The Rev. T. M. Anderson became the congregation's first resident pastor in 1867. Membership was extended to the community's Mexican-Americans in 1914, and in 1919 the church joined the Milam Baptist Association. Church facilities have been expanded over the years to meet changing needs. First Baptist helped organize the Mexican Baptist Church of Cameron in 1925 and Battetown Baptist Church in 1945. The congregation is active in foreign missionary work and continues to serve the community.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Founded in 1853 by itinerant preachers, First Baptist of Cameron grew alongside its Milam County town through the second half of the 19th century. In 1914 it extended membership to the community's Mexican-Americans and later helped establish the Mexican Baptist Church of Cameron in 1925. Its history reflects both frontier faith and the shifting social fabric of Central Texas.
Why it matters
The congregation's story traces both the settling of Central Texas and the complicated, evolving relationship between Anglo and Mexican-American communities in the region.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · J. W. D. Creath
- · David Fisher
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
St. Michael's Cemetery
Burlington, TX
St. Michael's Cemetery grew from the Irish Catholic families who settled the Milam County community once called Waterford. In 1876 brothers John and Michael Jones bought the land; Michael died two years later and was buried there, and in 1897 his heirs deeded the plot to the Catholic Diocese of Galveston. The headstones—German, Czech, Irish, Hispanic, and more—record the mingling of cultures that built Burlington, including veterans reaching back to the Civil War.
Jewish Cemetery
Rockdale, TX
When the railroad reached Rockdale in 1874, Jewish merchants were among its earliest residents, including the Lowenstein brothers, who sold goods from a tent before the tracks even arrived. By 1879 some 100 Jewish residents supported an active B'nai B'rith lodge, and in 1877 the Hebrew Benevolent Association established this dedicated burial ground. Its graves—among them a Confederate veteran and victims of an 1888 hotel fire—chronicle a community whose last burial came in 1939.
McLennan's Bluff
Rosebud, TX
Scottish immigrant Neil McLennan built his home on this bluff above Pond Creek in 1835 on land granted through Sterling Robertson's colony, part of the first wave of Anglo settlement in central Texas. Frontier life was perilous: in 1836 his brother Laughlin's family was attacked, and the McLennans sheltered for years in the fortified town of Nashville. Neil later scouted the country that would bear his name, settling in McLennan County until his death in 1867, while Rosebud grew up on his old grant.
Zabcikville
Temple, TX
In 1856, Jan Zabcik Sr. brought his family from Moravia to Galveston, part of the wave of Czech immigrants who settled first around Cat Springs before moving on to Bell County. There the family bought land—a marker of status in the Czech community—and a small settlement grew, changing names from Kocenda to Lugoville to Marekville as different storekeepers took over. In 1923 Frank Zabcik bought the store and land and renamed it Zabcikville, and much of that original family acreage remains with descendants who still farm it.