First Baptist Church of Claytonville
Claytonville, Swisher County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Organized as New Hope Baptist Church of Christ in 1891, this congregation changed its name in 1912 to Whitfield Baptist Church. It acquired a good church plant, a parsonage, and a cabin site at Plains Baptist Assembly Grounds. Steps began in 1960 to relocate on the paved highway in this new business community growing up around the cotton gin built in the 1950s by M. C. Clayton (1899-1963). The new church building -- first in the town -- was erected in 1962-63. The present name was adopted in 1964. Peak membership for the congregation has been 206. (1975)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Founded on the High Plains in 1891 as New Hope Baptist Church of Christ, this congregation was renamed Whitfield Baptist Church in 1912 and gathered a church, parsonage, and cabin at the Plains Baptist Assembly Grounds. As a new business community grew up around a cotton gin built in the 1950s by M. C. Clayton, the congregation moved to the paved highway and raised the town's first church building in 1962–63, taking the Claytonville name in 1964.
Why it matters
The church's shifting names and locations track the slow settlement and cotton economy of the Texas Panhandle, where towns and congregations gathered around gins and highways.
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Related people
- · M. C. Clayton
Themes & tags
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