First Baptist Church of Yoakum
Yoakum, Lavaca County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Yoakum was founded in 1887 when the San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railroad built a line through this area. The town grew rapidly and on April 7, 1889, one month before the town was incorporated, the First Baptist Church was organized. Led by the Rev. H. M. Rowland from nearby Flatonia, the congregation began with seven charter members: J. H. and N. M. Clare; Edgar and Lydia Barnes; Thomas Johnson; Lou Thomas; and B. F. Griffin, who served as first church clerk. Rowland continued to serve the new congregation for a year. The church's first place of worship was a one-room frame building at the corner of West Hochheim and Lott streets. It was replaced in 1893 by a larger frame structure at East Gonzales and Dunn streets. By 1912 it was too small for the growing congregation, and a new three-story brick sanctuary featuring six large stained glass windows was built on the same site. With the addition of facilities to serve Sunday School and other needs, it served the congregation until a new structure was erected in 1974. Throughout its history this congregation has been involved in local and foreign missionary activities. It continues to be a vital part of the community. 1989
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Yoakum sprang up in 1887 when the San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railroad pushed through, and the First Baptist Church organized on April 7, 1889 — a month before the town itself incorporated. Seven charter members began under the Rev. H. M. Rowland, worshipping first in a one-room frame building before a brick sanctuary with six stained-glass windows rose in 1912. The congregation has long carried on local and foreign mission work.
Why it matters
The church's birth alongside the railroad shows how rail lines conjured whole towns — and their civic and religious institutions — almost overnight across late-1800s Texas.
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Related people
- · H. M. Rowland
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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Old Moulton
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First Methodist Church of Yoakum
Yoakum, TX
Sent by the East Texas Conference in 1889, the Rev. Thomas S. Armstrong gathered a small band of Methodists to organize this Yoakum congregation, worshiping at first in a Knights of Pythias hall, an empty saloon, and borrowed sanctuaries. The church built its first home in 1893 and replaced it with a brick structure in 1917 before moving to its present site in 1973. Its Women's Missionary Society, founded in 1893, has carried on outreach for well over a century.
Yoakum
Yoakum, TX
Yoakum rose on land granted by Mexico in 1835 to settler John May, in country used to gather cattle bound up the Chisholm Trail. The arrival of the San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railroad in 1887 turned it into a transportation hub, and the town — named for rail official B. F. Yoakum — incorporated in 1889 around industries in beef, leather, and canning.