First Baptist Church of Olton
Olton, Lamb County, Texas
Marker Inscription
In 1903, the Rev. J.W. Winn, a missionary with the Staked Plains Missionary Baptist Association, led a meeting at a farmhouse northeast of what became Olton. That day, the first Missionary Baptist Church in Lamb County was organized. The members called the Rev. Richbourg as their first pastor. After meeting in area homes for many years, members joined area residents in 1908 in constructing a union church building to be used by several denominations. In 1923, under the leadership of the Rev. G.I. Britain, the Baptist congregation built its first sanctuary. The membership doubled within a few years and continued to grow and serve its community through education, worship and missionary work. (2004)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In 1903, missionary Rev. J.W. Winn gathered settlers at a farmhouse northeast of the future town of Olton and organized the first Missionary Baptist church in Lamb County. For years members met in homes and, from 1908, in a shared union building used by several denominations. Under Rev. G.I. Britain the Baptists built their own sanctuary in 1923, and the congregation swiftly grew as the surrounding plains community took root.
Why it matters
The church's founding in a farmhouse before the town itself existed illustrates how frontier faith communities often preceded and seeded settlement on the Texas High Plains.
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Related people
- · J.W. Winn
- · G.I. Britain
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Olton's Union Church Bell
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When the Soash Land Company laid out Olton in 1908, it set aside lots for a school, church and bank, and townspeople soon raised a Union church open to all denominations. About 1909 they hung this 950-pound steel bell, whose tones carried across the plains to call worshipers from miles around. After a 1928 tornado toppled the bell tower, the Methodist congregation bought the bell and moved it, and in 1958 it passed to the Church of the Nazarene.
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Created in 1876 but too sparsely settled to organize until it mustered 21 qualified voters in 1908, Lamb County built its first courthouse — a nine-room frame building raised by donated labor — at Olton. After fire destroyed it in 1922, a brick-and-concrete courthouse rose here in 1922–23, only for a 1946 election to move the county seat to Littlefield.
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