First Missionary Baptist Church
Silsbee, Hardin County, Texas
Marker Inscription
FIRST MISSIONARY BAPTIST CHURCH JOHN HENRY KIRBY AND NATHANIEL SILSBEE BEGAN DEVELOPING THE TIMBER RESOURCES OF EAST TEXAS AND BUILT A RAILROAD FROM BEAUMONT NORTHWARD. THE FIRST TERMINAL ON THE RAILROAD, NAMED SILSBEE, GREW RAPIDLY ONCE THE SANTA FE RAILROAD BEGAN OPERATING PASSENGER TRAINS THROUGH TOWN DAILY. THE FIRST MISSIONARY BAPTIST CHURCH OF SILSBEE, ORIGINALLY CALLED FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH, WAS ORGANIZED AROUND 1900 BY REVEREND J.B. DUNBAR FOR THE AFRICAN AMERICAN COMMUNITY. JOHN KIRBY FURNISHED LAND AND MATERIALS FOR THE CHURCH BUILDING. THE BUILDING WAS TO BE USED FOR WORSHIP AS LONG AS THERE WAS A CONGREGATION, BUT IF THE CHURCH CEASED TO BE, THE LAND WOULD REVERT BACK TO KIRBY LUMBER COMPANY. REVEREND F.K. KIRKWOOD, A MISSIONARY FOR THE TRINITY VALLEY BAPTIST ASSOCIATION, CAME TO SILSBEE AND REORGANIZED THE CHURCH IN 1922. AT THIS TIME, THE NAME WAS CHANGED TO FIRST MISSIONARY BAPTIST CHURCH TO ELIMINATE THE CONFUSION WITH THE OTHER FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH. A NEW SANCTUARY WAS COMPLETED IN 1928. A STORM BLEW THE CHURCH OFF ITS BLOCKS IN 1939 AND WORSHIP SERVICES WERE HELD IN THE MASONIC HALL UNTIL 1940 WHEN THE CHURCH WAS REBUILT. REALIZING THE NEED FOR MORE ACCOMMODATIONS, A NEW CHURCH SANCTUARY WAS COMPLETED IN 1969 THAT INCLUDED THE ORIGINAL BELL. UNDER REV. BOOKER, THE ORIGINAL SITE WAS PURCHASED FROM THE TRUSTEES OF THE LAND, THE TRINITY VALLEY BAPTIST ASSOCIATION. THE CHURCH SUPPORTED THE CHRISTIAN CARE CENTER, THE SHELTER, THE YOUTH YOUNG ADULT FELLOWSHIP ALLIANCE FOUNDATION AND LOCAL AND FOREIGN MISSIONS. THE CHURCH CONTINUES TO EXPAND, HONOR THEIR HERITAGE AND ASSIST THE COMMUNITY THROUGH OUTREACH AND SPIRITUAL GUIDANCE. (2012)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
When lumbermen John Henry Kirby and Nathaniel Silsbee pushed a railroad north from Beaumont, the terminal town of Silsbee boomed—and around 1900 Rev. J.B. Dunbar organized a Baptist church for its African American community. Kirby furnished the land and materials, with a covenant that the site serve worship or revert to his lumber company. Reorganized in 1922 and rebuilt after a 1939 storm, the congregation carried its original bell into a new sanctuary and endures through outreach today.
Why it matters
The church reflects the African American communities that grew inside the company sawmill towns of East Texas, building lasting institutions amid the timber boom.
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Related people
- · J.B. Dunbar
- · F.K. Kirkwood
- · John Henry Kirby
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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Waldo Mathews High School
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As the railroad turned Silsbee into a busy mill town at the turn of the 20th century, Black settlers organized a school for their children, guided by Reverends J.R. Dunbar and W.H. Jermany. Under principal Waldo Mathews it grew from two teachers to eight, and in 1922 a new six-room building rose with help from the Julius Rosenwald Fund. By 1939 it was the only African American school in Hardin County to earn eleventh-grade classification, and Silsbee's schools integrated peacefully by 1967.
First United Methodist Church of Silsbee
Silsbee, TX
Methodist worship reached Silsbee in 1901 when the place was a company town built around the lumber and railroad empire of John Henry Kirby. The earliest Sunday School classes met in an old passenger coach parked on a railroad siding, served by circuit-riding preachers, before charter members formally organized the church in 1904. Through donated land, borrowed halls, and repeated rebuilding after fires, the congregation grew alongside the town it helped anchor.
Harvey Houses of Silsbee
Silsbee, TX
Founded as a sawmill town in 1894, Silsbee became a Santa Fe Railroad stop in 1902, and within a few years travelers could dine and lodge at one of Fred Harvey's famous Harvey Houses. Stretching from Chicago to California along the Santa Fe lines, the Harvey Houses brought crisp linens, good food, and a touch of refinement to rough railroad towns. Silsbee's first Harvey hotel burned in 1906, but a rebuilt restaurant served the community until 1923.