First Baptist Church of Eldorado
Eldorado, Schleicher County, Texas
Marker Inscription
This congregation was organized by 15 charter members on Sept. 1, 1901, and originally called the Eldorado Missionary Baptist Church. The day following its organization seven people, baptized in the South Concho River by the Rev. Ben Wilson, were added to the congregation. The first church structure was built at this site in 1906 on property donated by W. B. Silliman. A new sanctuary, built in 1928 to replace the 1906 structure, was remodeled in the 1960s. This church helped organize local minority Baptist churches and supports community-wide outreach and foreign missionary activities. (1993)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Fifteen charter members organized this congregation as the Eldorado Missionary Baptist Church on September 1, 1901, and the very next day seven new members were baptized in the South Concho River. The first sanctuary went up in 1906 on donated land, replaced by a new building in 1928 that was later remodeled. The church helped organize other local Baptist congregations and supported outreach and missionary work.
Why it matters
It reflects the Baptist faith's central role in building community and institutions across the ranching country of West Texas.
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Related people
- · Ben Wilson
- · W. B. Silliman
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Schleicher County Courthouse
Eldorado, TX
Completed in 1923-24 to replace an earlier courthouse that burned in 1917, this three-story Classical Revival building was designed by the noted San Antonio architect Henry T. Phelps. Four half-round Doric columns support a grand entablature, and the walls were raised from native stone quarried nearby. For a century it has anchored civic life in Eldorado and Schleicher County.
Schleicher County
Eldorado, TX
Schleicher County was created in 1887 from Crockett County but not formally organized until 1901, a common gap in thinly settled West Texas. It honors Gustav Schleicher, a German immigrant who became a pioneer settler, a Texas legislator, and a member of the U.S. Congress. Eldorado became the county seat, and the county baled its first cotton in 1904.
Site of Verand
Eldorado, TX
Verand, the first town in Schleicher County, sprang up around 1890 near the Vermont Ranch headquarters, platted into 86 lots with a stagecoach station, post office, store, hotel, and homes for a few dozen families. But settlers could not secure clear title to their land, and when Eldorado's founder offered free lots five miles south in 1895, the whole town simply picked up and moved. The abandoned site soon returned to open range.
Christopher Columbus Doty
Eldorado, TX
Christopher Columbus Doty (1857–1944) came to Texas from Missouri in 1879 and soon claimed the headquarters at Ten-Mile Water Hole, becoming the first permanent citizen of what would become Schleicher County. In 1882 he drilled the county's first water well and raised the first windmill south of the Concho River — the kind of innovation that unlocked ranching and farming across the arid West Texas plains. When the county organized in 1901, his land was included and he was elected its first tax assessor-collector.