First Baptist Church of Ladonia
Ladonia, Fannin County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Ladonia's Baptists trace their history to 1859, when the Rev. Robert Cooke Buckner began traveling from Paris, Texas to Ladonia to preach monthly services. On January 8, 1860 the congregation formally organized as the First Baptist Church. The Rev. A. J. Moffat became the first pastor. Before the congregation built its first church building in 1877, services were held in a combination church/schoolhouse, where worshipers used split logs for seats for several years. The congregation became actively involved in both Baptist affairs and missionary endeavors early in its development. In 1867, Ladonia was the site of the Baptist convention of eastern Texas, though attendance was somewhat low due to a yellow fever outbreak. However, the next year Ladonia continued hosting other Baptist events and participating in local, county, and regional association meetings. As early as 1869, women's groups were active in local missionary programs, and at the turn of the century the congregation as a whole began to support a nearby orphanage as well as foreign missions. Throughout its history, the First Baptist Church of Ladonia has played an important role in the religious life of this community.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
The Baptists of Ladonia trace their beginnings to 1859, when the Rev. Robert Cooke Buckner rode monthly from Paris to preach, and the congregation formally organized in January 1860. In its early years worshipers sat on split logs in a shared church-and-schoolhouse before raising their first building in 1877. The church became a hub of regional Baptist life, even hosting an 1867 convention thinned by a yellow fever outbreak, and its women's missionary groups were active as early as 1869.
Why it matters
Frontier congregations like this one were the social and moral center of new Texas towns, binding scattered settlers into communities and extending their reach through missions and charity.
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Related people
- · Robert Cooke Buckner
- · A. J. Moffat
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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Ladonia Cemetery
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The chief burial ground of Ladonia grew from two sections—an I.O.O.F. (Odd Fellows) cemetery and a Presbyterian one—before their management merged around 1902. Among its earliest graves are an infant from 1866, the "Stranger's Tomb" of an unknown traveler who died in 1867, and Baptist pastor and Civil War veteran William Lovelace Foster. Over generations it gathered in Fannin County officials, early settlers, and veterans of the Civil War and both World Wars.
Ladonia
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Settled around 1840 and first called McCownville after early resident Frank McCown, this Fannin County community was platted with unusually wide streets by carpenter-merchant James H. Cole. Local legend says the name changed in 1857 to honor Ladonna Millsay, a singer traveling by wagon train from Tennessee, and by 1858 a post office made "Ladonia" official. The arrival of the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway in 1887 turned it into a booming cotton-marketing town of 2,000 before it slowly declined in the 20th century.