First Christian Church of Bay City
Bay City, Matagorda County, Texas
Marker Inscription
In 1894, the Bay City Town Company established the town of Bay City on Bay Prairie between the Colorado River and Caney Creek. As families moved to the new townsite, religious institutions, businesses and schools were established to serve the growing population. On April 4, 1904, trustees W. T. Goode, J. E. May and William Cash purchased several lots in town on which to construct the first permanent house of worship for the First Christian Church of Bay City. The First Christian Church building served as sanctuary, church school and social center for the new congregation until its destruction in a 1909 hurricane. Members of the church rebuilt their sanctuary and continued their traditions of worship and evangelism, including sponsoring an inter-denominational revival meeting in 1912. In 1939, they purchased and relocated a chapel and community center formerly owned by The Texas Gulf Sulphur Company in Old Gulf (16 mi. S) for their use. A period of growth in the 1940s-50s led to the purchase of additional land in 1954 and the construction of a larger sanctuary in 1960. Members of the First Christian Church of Bay City have included civic leaders, leaders in the Disciples of Christ denomination, talented musicians, and several who have gone into the ordained ministry. The congregation provides assistance to those in the community in need, as it continues to reflect the ideals and traditions of its founders. (2001)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
When the Bay City Town Company laid out its townsite on Bay Prairie in 1894, churches, businesses, and schools followed the arriving families. In 1904 trustees bought lots for the first permanent home of the First Christian Church of Bay City, which served as sanctuary and social center until a 1909 hurricane destroyed it. The congregation rebuilt, relocated a chapel from Old Gulf in 1939, and grew through the mid-century, raising a larger sanctuary in 1960.
Why it matters
The congregation's story illustrates how frontier Texas towns were built as much by their founding churches as by their businesses, weathering hurricanes and hard times to anchor community life.
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Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Cedarvale Cemetery
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The Cedarvale Cemetery began in 1896 with a tragedy — the death of Rufus A. Mathis in a hunting accident, one of the very community leaders then working to establish a burial ground near Bay City. Landowner D. P. Moore formally deeded four acres that March, and by 1906 a cemetery association had formed to tend and enlarge the grounds. Many of Bay City's earliest settlers rest here.
Matagorda County
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Matagorda County traces its origins to March 1834, when the area was organized as a municipality of Mexican Texas along the Gulf coast. With Texas independence it became a county in 1836, formally organized in 1837, taking its name from the bay it fronts. The seat sat at Matagorda until 1894, when it moved to Bay City.
Matagorda County
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This corner of the Texas coast was home to the Karankawa people and the landing place of the French explorer La Salle in 1685. Colonists of Stephen F. Austin settled the area between 1822 and 1836, and the municipality of Matagorda organized under Mexican rule in 1834 before becoming Matagorda County in the new Republic of Texas. Erected by the state in 1936 for Texas's centennial, the marker honors early settlers, delegates to the conventions that declared independence, and Mary S. Wightman Helms, remembered as the first woman teacher in Texas.
First Baptist Church of Bay City
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Rooted in a Matagorda County congregation of the early 1850s, this Baptist body organized at Red Bluff in 1889 and moved to the new county seat of Bay City in 1895, taking the name First Baptist Church. Its early members met in borrowed rooms and even a shared Union school before raising their first sanctuary in 1903, only to see a 1909 hurricane destroy it. Rebuilt in brick by 1915 and expanded through the mid-century, the church helped found other congregations and sponsored the Emmanuel Mexican Mission for decades.