First Baptist Church
Taylor, Williamson County, Texas
Marker Inscription
In 1883, young black evangelist Dr. L. Benjamin Toliver held a tent revival in a grassy field at this site. In 1886, Dr. Toliver officially organized Mt. Aria Baptist Church. Work on a permanent sanctuary began that year and was completed in 1904. The first two seated pastors, the Rev. A. L. Boone and Dr. L. K. Williams, were later secretary and president, respectively, of the National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc. Notable deacons include legendary rodeo bulldogger Bill Pickett, and Samuel Houston “Papa” Hennington, Sr., who served for 64 years. In 1940, Rev. L. E. Brown led remodeling of the sanctuary and a name change to First Baptist Church. The church has experienced untold blessings from God and spiritually served many of his faithful disciples.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
The congregation began in 1883 when the young Black evangelist L. Benjamin Toliver held a tent revival on this Taylor site, organizing Mt. Aria Baptist Church three years later and completing its sanctuary in 1904. Two of its early pastors rose to national leadership in the National Baptist Convention, and its deacons included the legendary rodeo bulldogger Bill Pickett. A 1940 remodeling brought the name change to First Baptist Church.
Why it matters
This congregation's reach — from national Baptist leaders to a pioneering Black rodeo star — shows how African American churches nurtured leadership that shaped communities far beyond their pews.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
In 1883, when a young evangelist pitched a tent in a grassy field in Taylor, Texas, the town sat in the heart of the cotton country of Central Texas, and the wounds of slavery and the Civil War were still fresh in living memory. Emancipation was less than two decades old. Black Texans were building free lives and free institutions in a world that was, at the same time, hardening the lines of segregation around them.
In that world, the Black church was not one institution among many — it was the institution. It was often the first thing a freed community built and owned outright: a place of worship, yes, but also a school, a meeting hall, a mutual-aid society, and the one space where Black leadership could be exercised freely and Black voices could be raised without a white overseer.
So a tent revival in a Taylor field in 1883 was more than a religious event. It was the seed of a self-governing community — a congregation that would, in time, send its sons out to national leadership and shelter one of the most remarkable athletes America produced.
People & events
The founder was Dr. L. Benjamin Toliver, a young Black evangelist who held that first tent revival on this site in 1883 and, three years later in 1886, formally organized Mt. Aria Baptist Church. Work on a permanent sanctuary began that same year — and, in a testament to how hard such things came, was not completed until 1904.
What this congregation produced in leadership is striking. Its first two seated pastors, the Rev. A. L. Boone and Dr. L. K. Williams, each went on to hold the highest offices of the National Baptist Convention, USA — one serving as its secretary, the other as its president. From a single Central Texas church came two men who would help steer the largest Black denomination in the country.
And then there were the deacons. Among them was Bill Pickett, the legendary rodeo bulldogger whose daring style of wrestling steers made him a giant of the American West. Another, Samuel Houston "Papa" Hennington, Sr., served as a deacon for an astonishing 64 years — a reminder that a church's real strength lies as much in its steadfast, unglamorous pillars as in its famous names. In 1940, under the Rev. L. E. Brown, the sanctuary was remodeled and the congregation took the name it carries today, First Baptist Church.
Its place in the American story
This one congregation reaches the national story from two very different directions, and that is exactly what makes it significant. On one hand, it fed the leadership of the National Baptist Convention — the organizational backbone of Black religious life in America, and a wellspring of the community networks that would later help sustain the civil rights movement. To pastor here and then lead that convention was to move from a Taylor pulpit to a national stage.
On the other hand, it counted among its deacons Bill Pickett, one of the great figures of the rodeo and of the American West — a Black cowboy whose skill and showmanship earned him lasting fame in a frontier story too often told as if it were all white. That a national religious leader and a Western sporting legend could sit in the same modest sanctuary says something profound about the reach of the Black church.
Taken together, they illustrate a truth that runs through African American history: the church was the incubator. It nurtured leaders, honored working people, and connected a small Texas town to the largest currents of national life, decade after decade.
If you visit
Come to this site in Taylor and begin, as the story does, with the empty ground. Before there was a sanctuary there was a field and a tent — so let yourself feel the distance between that grassy revival of 1883 and the church that rose from it over the next twenty years. The building you see is the fruit of long, determined labor.
As you look, hold the range of people who passed through these doors: pastors bound for national leadership, and a deacon, Bill Pickett, whose name still means something wherever the rodeo is remembered. It's rare for one small congregation to touch such different corners of American life, and the marker lets you stand where those threads crossed.
If you're building a road trip through the small towns of Central Texas, a stop like this deepens the whole journey. It's a reminder to look past the courthouse squares to the churches — often the oldest continuously owned institutions in a Black community, and among the truest keepers of local memory. Read the marker, take in the setting, and give the place the quiet attention it has earned across more than a century.
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
- · L. Benjamin Toliver
- · Bill Pickett
- · L. K. Williams
Themes & tags
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