First Baptist Church of Huntsville
Huntsville, Walker County, Texas
Marker Inscription
One of the earliest Baptist congregations in Texas, this church was organized in 1844 by The Rev. Z. N. Morrell, who served as first pastor. The Rev. J. W. D. Creath, a missionary from Virginia, was the second, and The Rev. G. W. Baines, known now as an ancestor of U.S. President Lyndon Baines Johnson, was the third. General Sam Houston, ex-president of the Republic of Texas, was a member. The congregation dedicated its first church building in 1851; it was on this site. A bell added in the 1850s became a pride of the city. This church hosted the Baptist State Convention five times in the 1850s and 60s. One of the first regular Sunday schools in Texas functioned here by 1864. Blacks in the membership requested and received letters of dismission in 1868, to organize a church of their own. After Sam Houston Normal Institute (now Sam Houston State University) was established in 1879, many of its people came to augment the leadership in this church. The congregation has erected houses of worship in 1891, 1924, and 1954. Throughout its history, it has promoted and financed mission work, and has helped to organize and encourage other congregations.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Organized in 1844 by the Rev. Z. N. Morrell, this was one of the earliest Baptist congregations in Texas, counting ex-Republic president Sam Houston among its members and the future ancestor of Lyndon Baines Johnson, the Rev. G. W. Baines, among its pastors. It dedicated its first building here in 1851, ran one of Texas's first regular Sunday schools by 1864, and hosted the Baptist State Convention five times. In 1868 its Black members requested letters of dismission to form a church of their own.
Why it matters
Bound up with Sam Houston, a presidential lineage, and the postwar separation of Black congregations, the church is a crossroads of Texas religious and social history.
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Related people
- · Rev. Z. N. Morrell
- · Rev. J. W. D. Creath
- · Rev. G. W. Baines
- · Sam Houston
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
St. James United Methodist Church of Huntsville
Huntsville, TX
Organized just after the Civil War to serve the newly freed people of Huntsville, this congregation—known as the Freedmen's Church—first worshiped in 1868 in a shared Union Church building on land donated by French merchant John Courtade. Its first trustees included Joshua Houston, the formerly enslaved man tied to Sam Houston's household, and the structure long doubled as a schoolhouse for Black children. Under the Rev. Lee, the first Black presiding elder, the church flourished, building a new belfried sanctuary in 1894.
Joshua Houston
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Born into slavery in Alabama and brought to Texas in 1840 in the household of Sam and Margaret Houston, Joshua Houston rose after emancipation into one of Walker County's most respected leaders. He built businesses and won public trust as a Huntsville alderman, county commissioner, and delegate to the Republican National Convention. A steadfast champion of Black education, he was buried near the general whose household he had once served.
First Missionary Baptist Church
Huntsville, TX
After sharing the Union Church with Methodists, Huntsville's Black Baptists organized their own First Missionary Baptist Church in 1869 in the Rogersville neighborhood, led by Rev. J.J. Rhinehardt with "Mother" Sarah Rolling. Trustees bought their first lot on 10th Street in 1872 for forty dollars in gold, and the congregation grew across generations, counting educator Samuel Walker Houston and Joshua Houston among its members. From food drives to scholarships, the church became a lasting engine of community life.
Rogersville
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Rogersville is Huntsville's oldest African-American neighborhood, born when former mayor Micajah Rogers began selling tracts to freed people in 1866 — among the buyers, Sam Houston's former body servant Joshua Houston. Freedpeople here built homes, churches, and businesses from blacksmith shops to cafes, and turned their churches into schools when public ones were denied. It became the heart of Huntsville's Black community and the home of its annual Juneteenth celebration.