First Baptist Church of Mexia
Mexia, Limestone County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Organized Jan. 14, 1872, by the Rev. W. Henry Parks. Some charter members came from Springfield Church (founded 1846), as that town was bypassed by Houston and Texas Central Railroad in 1871 and absorbed by Mexia. After meeting at first in a lodge hall, congregation built a church in 1873. Four buildings have been erected on this site. Thirty-two pastors have served this church. The congregation has helped found two other churches. It also has sent out missionaries Mildred Cox Mein (Brazil, 1934-71) and John E. Mills (Africa, 1947- ). 1972
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Organized in 1872 by the Rev. W. Henry Parks, this congregation drew charter members from the older Springfield church after the Houston and Texas Central Railroad bypassed that town in 1871 and Mexia absorbed it. The church built its first home in 1873 and erected four buildings on this site over the years. It helped found two other churches and sent missionaries to Brazil and Africa.
Why it matters
Its founding shows how the railroad's route could dissolve one town into another, carrying congregations and communities along with it.
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Related people
- · W. Henry Parks
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Town Named for Gen. Jose Antonio Mexia
Mexia, TX
Gen. José Antonio Mexía was a Mexican military officer and promoter of Texas colonization who served in his country's legation to the United States and its senate in the early 1830s. Though he first backed Santa Anna, he turned against the general when he seized dictatorial power, fleeing to Texas in 1834 and leading expeditions against him until he was captured and executed by Santa Anna's order in 1839. His son and daughter later settled the family's Limestone County land and donated the site for the town that bears his name in 1871.
Alfonso Steel
Mexia, TX
Alfonso Steel fought at the Battle of San Jacinto in 1836, the decisive clash in which Texian forces under Sam Houston routed the Mexican army in a fight lasting less than twenty minutes and won independence for the Republic of Texas. Wounded in that battle, Steel lived on for decades and became its last surviving veteran, a living link to the founding fight of the Texas Republic. The State of Texas honored him with this marker in 1962.
Albert R. Mace
Mexia, TX
Albert R. Mace pinned on a badge at twenty-one as a Texas Ranger and spent forty-five years in law enforcement, rising to county sheriff, president of the state sheriffs' association, and chief of police in some of the roughest oil-boom towns of the 1920s. He commanded a Ranger company during the martial-law days of the East Texas oil fields and, true to a lifetime in harness, died still in service.
Shiloh Baptist Church
Mexia vicinity, TX
On a fall day in 1881, fifteen neighbors from surrounding communities gathered to organize a Baptist church in rural Limestone County, with the Rev. G. L. Jennings as first pastor. For fourteen years they worshiped in the Shiloh schoolhouse and shared a Union Sunday School with local Methodists before dedicating their own sanctuary in 1896. A new building followed in 1927, and the congregation has anchored the area's religious life for well over a century.