First Baptist Church of Cisco
Cisco, Eastland County, Texas
Marker Inscription
The Rev. C.G. Stephens, founder of Red Gap Community (1 mi. W), joined the Rev. W.B. Cobb in 1878 to organize the Red Gap Baptist Church. Forerunner of the First Baptist Church of Cisco, The Red Gap congregation had 13 charter members who met in a one-room log schoolhouse. This small membership organized seven churches into the Red Gap Baptist Association. The junction of the Texas & Pacific Railroad and the Houston & Texas Central Railroad established Cisco and began the demise of Red Gap. The congregation moved to Cisco in 1881 and built a church house at 10th and Avenue E. The next year they constructed a 36' x 50' building at this site. A deadly tornado in 1893 totally destroyed the building. A new structure, completed the following year, burned in 1924. The collapse of an earlier oil boom, which had brought rapid growth to Cisco and the church, caused financial losses. The congregation met in Cisco City Hall and schoolhouses until a new structure could be completed. This fellowship started a mission at Liberty Hill (4 mi. NW) and a Spanish language mission in northeast Cisco. Former pastors of this church have become presidents of Baptist colleges, missionaries, evangelists and special service ministers. (1978)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
When Baptists first gathered here in 1878, they met in a one-room log schoolhouse in the little settlement of Red Gap, organizing seven area churches into an association. The town's fate turned on the rails: where the Texas & Pacific met the Houston & Texas Central, the new town of Cisco rose and Red Gap faded, so the congregation followed the tracks in 1881. Across the next half-century it endured a killing tornado, two building fires, and the bust of an early oil boom, meeting in city hall and schoolhouses until it could rebuild.
Why it matters
The church's migration from a dying crossroads to a booming rail junction captures how the railroad remade the map of small-town Texas, deciding which communities lived and which vanished.
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Related people
- · Rev. C.G. Stephens
- · Rev. W.B. Cobb
Related events
- · 1893 Cisco tornado
Themes & tags
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