First Baptist Church of Melissa
Melissa, Collin County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Organized as the Melissa Baptist Church of Christ on Oct. 18, 1884, this congregation began with 22 charter members. Levi Dunn served as first pastor. The fellowship met once a month until 1898, when services began to be held twice monthly. Weekly worship services began in 1948. A 1921 tornado destroyed the original church building, but by 1924 the congregation had erected a new sanctuary. Known since 1952 as the First Baptist Church of Melissa, the congregation has provided service and leadership to the community throughout its history.** (1984)***
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
This Collin County congregation was organized in October 1884 as the Melissa Baptist Church of Christ, beginning with twenty-two charter members under first pastor Levi Dunn. For years it met only monthly, moving to twice-monthly services in 1898 and weekly worship by 1948. A 1921 tornado leveled the original building, but the congregation rebuilt by 1924 and has anchored community life in Melissa ever since.
Why it matters
Small-town Baptist churches like this one, weathering storms and slowly growing from monthly to weekly worship, were the steady civic backbone of settling rural Texas.
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Related people
- · Levi Dunn
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Melissa Christian Church
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This North Texas congregation grew out of religious gatherings held in a local schoolhouse as early as 1868, raising its first sanctuary near this spot in 1878. After a 1921 tornado leveled that building, local contractor W. N. Osburn led church volunteers in erecting the present structure in 1924, giving it modest classical touches like entrance pediments and a dentil cornice. Many worshippers today descend from the church's charter members.
Scott-Barker House
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This L-plan Victorian dwelling went up around the 1870s, as the young town of Melissa was taking root in the Blackland Prairie of North Texas. Merchant Louis A. Scott and his wife Louise bought it in 1880, and after 1903 it passed to the Barker family, whose daughters lived here for 85 years. When a devastating tornado tore through Melissa in 1921, the sturdy house lost only a chimney—a small testament to its solid construction and its distinctive dormers and Mansard-type roofs.
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This cemetery has served the Melissa community for generations, tracing its roots to the pioneer Sherley family whose oldest graves date to the 1850s. Formally established in 1889, it gathers early settlers—including a Confederate captain and veterans of conflicts from the Mexican War through World War II—into a single burial ground. A related family plot that once held enslaved people became the nearby St. Paul Cemetery, a reminder of the community's divided past.
Highland Cemetery
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