First Baptist Church of Pecos City
Pecos, Reeves County, Texas
Marker Inscription
The Rev. Sumner Battle Callaway (1852-1952) led the organization of this Baptist church in 1885 and served as its first pastor. Callaway had come to Texas from Georgia and had been Gov. Richard Hubbard's private secretary and a lawyer before entering the ministry. The eight charter members included Callaway, A. M. and Sallie Harris Walthall, and Mrs. Colvin. The congregation's first church building was completed in 1887. A larger sanctuary was built in 1910, during the pastorate of the Rev. J. B. Cole (1858-1947). The First Baptist Church of Pecos City was a member of the Sweetwater Baptist Association from 1886 until 1902, when the El Paso association was organized here. It later became part of the Pecos Valley association. Over the years, the fellowship has been served by a number of prominent pastors, including the Rev. L. R. Millican who preached on the west Texas frontier for more than 50 years. The First Baptist Church of Pecos City has been active in home and foreign missionary work and has placed a great emphasis on community service.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
The Rev. Sumner Battle Callaway—a former Georgia lawyer and gubernatorial secretary turned minister—organized this Baptist congregation in 1885 with eight charter members and served as its first pastor. A first building went up in 1887, replaced by a larger sanctuary in 1910, as the church moved through a succession of West Texas Baptist associations. Among its later ministers was L. R. Millican, who preached across the frontier for more than fifty years.
Why it matters
The congregation's founding marks how organized religion followed settlement onto the West Texas frontier, binding scattered communities together as the railroad era opened the region.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
In the 1880s, the railroad transformed the far reaches of West Texas. The Texas and Pacific Railway was building west across the plains, and new towns grew along its tracks where there had been little permanent settlement. Pecos City, on the Pecos River, was one of them: a railroad and ranching town in dry, wide-open country.
Life on this frontier was rough. Cowboys, railroad workers, and ranchers made up much of the early population, and towns like Pecos had a reputation for rowdiness. The churches, schools, and civic groups that marked a settled community had to be built from nothing, often by a few determined founders.
Across the country, Protestant denominations were working hard to follow settlers west. Baptists in particular organized associations of congregations. These groups helped young churches support one another, share preachers, and grow as new towns appeared along the railroad lines.
People & events
The Rev. Sumner Battle Callaway led this congregation's founding in 1885 and served as its first pastor. He had an unusual path to the pulpit. He came to Texas from Georgia, worked as a lawyer, and served as private secretary to Governor Richard Hubbard before entering the ministry. His law training and experience in public life likely served him well in organizing a church in a new town. He lived a remarkably long life, from 1852 to 1952, and saw the frontier give way to the modern age.
The church began with eight charter members: Callaway, A. M. and Sallie Harris Walthall, Mrs. Colvin, and others. Their first building was finished in 1887. That was a real accomplishment in a young town where materials and money were scarce. A larger sanctuary followed in 1910, under the Rev. J. B. Cole.
The congregation also helped shape Baptist life in the region. It belonged to the Sweetwater Baptist Association from 1886 until 1902, when the El Paso association was organized here in Pecos. It later joined the Pecos Valley association. Its pastors included the Rev. L. R. Millican, who preached on the West Texas frontier for more than fifty years, an extraordinary career of carrying the gospel across a thinly settled land.
Its place in the American story
This church's story is a small chapter in a large national process: the religious settlement of the American West. As railroads opened new country, churches followed, and they often came to hold scattered frontier communities together.
From colonial times on, church-building was part of how Americans turned a raw settlement into a lasting community. A congregation gave people a place to meet, marry, bury their dead, and organize charity and education. In a rough railroad town, a church was also a statement about what kind of place the founders hoped it would become.
The Baptist association system that this church joined and helped expand reflects the denomination's decentralized, congregation-led structure. That structure let Baptists grow quickly across the South and West. Missionary preachers like Millican, who spent decades traveling the frontier, were central to that growth.
If you visit
Pecos is a West Texas town with deep roots in railroading and ranching. It sits in open, arid country where the sky seems enormous. Take a moment to picture the town in 1885, when eight people gathered to found a church in a place still rough at the edges.
The congregation's long history in the community is itself worth appreciating. Churches are active places of worship, so be respectful of services and members if you stop. The marker is a good reminder that the frontier was settled by ordinary people building institutions, not only by cowboys and railroad crews.
Pecos is a natural stop on a trip across far West Texas, on the way toward the Davis Mountains, Big Bend country, or El Paso. Pair this marker with the town's other ranching and railroad sites to get a fuller picture of how this part of the frontier became a community.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
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Themes & tags
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