First Baptist Church of Lyford
Lyford, Willacy County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Lyford's Baptists began meeting for worship services about 1909, when the Rev. S. F. Marsh started traveling from Harlingen once a month to preach. Lyford Baptists founded the First Baptist Church in 1911, and Marsh became the First Pastor. The congregation met in community buildings until 1923, when the first church was built upon land donated by members of the Piper family. Baptisms were performed in a stock tank on a local farm until 1937. The congregation has been active in local mission efforts by establishing Spanish-speaking Baptist churches in the area. (1991)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Lyford's Baptists began gathering around 1909, when a preacher rode monthly from Harlingen to hold services, and they organized the First Baptist Church in 1911. For years they met in community buildings and baptized converts in a farm stock tank, until a church was raised in 1923 on land donated by the Piper family. The congregation went on to help plant Spanish-speaking Baptist churches across the region.
Why it matters
It reflects the frontier faith of the lower Rio Grande Valley and the reach of congregations that ministered across the area's Anglo and Hispanic communities.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · S. F. Marsh
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
First Baptist Church of Edcouch
Edcouch, TX
Born from a non-denominational Sunday school in 1920, this Baptist congregation was formally organized in 1924 as the Los Indios Baptist Church and moved several times as the new farm country around Edcouch took shape. When the town was platted in 1927 the church relocated into it and took the name First Baptist Church of Edcouch, dedicating a brick building in 1949. Its history traces the settlement of a Rio Grande Valley farm town in the boom decades after the railroad arrived.
First Baptist Church of Hargill
Hargill, TX
Hargill grew after 1912 as a land company brought settlers for cattle ranching, and once a rail branch line spurred farm-tract sales in 1926, the community took shape. A small Baptist congregation that had met in a borrowed church from 1923 raised funds under Walter Holt and built this wood-frame church beside Highway 490 in 1926. Baptisms took place in nearby Bucy Lake until the building was moved and remodeled with a baptistry in 1956, keeping its original wooden floors.
First United Methodist Church of Harlingen
Harlingen, TX
Thirty-one charter members founded Harlingen's Methodist congregation in 1910, at first sharing a frame sanctuary and served by a circuit-riding preacher who walked between towns. With land offered by city founder Lon C. Hill, they built Harlingen's first brick church by Easter 1911 and grew alongside the booming Rio Grande Valley city. The congregation weathered the 1933 Labor Day hurricane as a refuge, sent thirteen members to die in World War II, and helped plant a family of new churches, several serving the area's Spanish-speaking community.
Our Lady of Mercy Cemetery
Mercedes, TX
Mercedes was laid out by a land-improvement company in 1907 during the railroad-driven boom that opened the Lower Rio Grande Valley to farming and new towns. At the Oblate order's request the company set aside ground for Our Lady of Mercy Catholic Church, dedicated in 1909, and this adjoining cemetery received its first marked burial that December. With thousands of graves, it became the resting place for townspeople who were not buried on the surrounding private ranches.