HistoricSiteMarkers
Reconstruction & Gilded AgeProgressive & Modern Era

First Presbyterian Church of Lott

Lott, Falls County, Texas

Marker Inscription

The railroad town of Lott was platted here in 1890 and in 1892 the area Presbytery established this church. A sanctuary, built that year under the direction of the Rev. J. W. Siler, was destroyed by a tornado in 1893. A second church building, erected in 1901, was destroyed by fire after being struck by lightning in 1939. A third sanctuary was completed at this site in 1942 and in 1951 a manse was built adjacent to the sanctuary. The congregation has traditionally supported a Ladies Auxiliary and a Sunday School, and continues to be active in national and foreign missionary activities.

Erected by Texas Historical Commission

The Story

The railroad town of Lott was platted in 1890, and within two years the local Presbytery organized this church, raising a first sanctuary in 1892. Weather and misfortune tested it hard: a tornado destroyed that building in 1893, lightning and fire took its successor in 1939, and the congregation rebuilt yet again in 1942. Through it all, its Ladies Auxiliary, Sunday School, and mission work carried on.

Why it matters

The church's repeated rebuilding after tornado and fire captures the stubborn resilience of small prairie congregations on the Texas blackland.

Own a business near here? Add it to the map.

Themes & tags

Nearby & related markers

Lott

Lott, TX

Lott sprang to life in 1889 as a planned stop on the San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railroad, laid out on a straight line between Cameron and Waco. The Texas Townsite Company bought pioneer land, gave the railroad its right-of-way, and named the new town for railroad president Uriah Lott. Businesses, a post office, a school, churches, and a volunteer fire department followed in quick succession, and the town was incorporated in 1890.

Live Oak Cemetery

Lott, TX

Springing up just after the Civil War, the Falls County community first called Camden and then Rupee grew into Live Oak — a crossroads of stores, a cotton gin, a post office, a Masonic lodge, and a Baptist church whose log cabin doubled as a schoolhouse. The Hodges brothers donated land for the church, school, and cemetery, and the earliest marked graves date to 1877. When rail lines bypassed the settlement in the 1890s it withered away, until only the cemetery remained to mark where a farming community once stood.

Falls of the Brazos River

Marlin, TX

The falls of the Brazos, where the river once dropped about ten feet over a rocky ledge, long served Native peoples and settlers as a landmark, meeting point, and campsite. In 1834 colonizer Sterling C. Robertson founded Sarahville de Viesca here, abandoned in 1836; later came Fort Milam and the town of Bucksnort. As the only hard-bottom crossing for 200 miles and the head of steamboat navigation, the falls gave Falls County its name in 1850 before the river shifted course in 1866.

First Baptist Church of Rosebud

Rosebud, TX

When the railroad platted the town of Rosebud, a Baptist congregation followed within a year, organizing in 1890 in a schoolhouse on the Gott Farm with eleven charter members. By 1892 the townsite company had deeded a lot, and the church has stood on this block ever since, building larger sanctuaries as it grew. Its Ladies' Aid Society, missionary work, and support of a local Hispanic Baptist mission wove it into the fabric of community life.