First Baptist Church
Bonham, Fannin County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Organized November 1852 under the Rev. J. R. Briscoe with six charter members. The first log church on this site doubled as the school. Cost of this lot-- then outside city limits -- was $50. Indian trail lay northeast. In 1855 a new frame church was built; baptisms were held in Saunder's pool on West 7th. Other denominations were also allowed to worship here. New churches were built in 1882 and 1921, the latter being dedicated by George W. Truett, noted evangelist. The present church was dedicated 1959 under the Rev. Jack M. Carson, pastor.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Organized in 1852 with six members, Bonham's First Baptist Church began in a log building that doubled as the town's school — a common frugality on the Texas frontier, where an Indian trail still ran nearby. Early converts were baptized in a local pool, and the congregation generously shared its space with other denominations. A succession of ever-larger buildings followed, one of them dedicated in 1921 by the renowned evangelist George W. Truett.
Why it matters
In frontier Texas the church and the schoolhouse were often the same room, and this congregation's long life shows how faith and education together anchored a young community.
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Related people
- · J.R. Briscoe
- · George W. Truett
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Trinity Episcopal Church
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Episcopal missionaries reached Fannin County in the mid-1870s, and by 1877 they had organized Trinity as a mission in Bonham, worshipping in members' homes and borrowed church buildings. The congregation raised a frame church in 1883—early worshippers sat on rough planks before a plank-and-strip altar—and won full parish status in 1885. After fire destroyed the historic structure in 1961, they rebuilt a cedar-clad church echoing the original.
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