Hope Baptist Church
Yoakum, Lavaca County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Hope Baptist Church Originally called Shiloh Baptist Church, this congregation was constituted in 1885 with eight charter members, who first met in the Riggs Schoolhouse. The exact location of the schoolhouse is unknown, except that it was in Lavaca County. The original members were: M. L. and M. Newsom, Daniel and Moneroy Fitch, J. L. and A. A. Moore, Adie Riggs and R. A. Anderson. They held worship services once a month, and baptisms took place in Clark's Creek. Church minutes record the formation of a building committee in 1896. The first worship service in the new sanctuary occurred in December 1896. Over the years, the congregation enlarged their space with additional facilities as they grew. A new building eventually replaced the 1896 structure. In 1920, the members of Shiloh Baptist Church agreed to change their name to Hope Baptist Church to reflect the name of the community in which they worshipped. Seven years later the congregation hosted the annual meeting of the Guadalupe Baptist Association. Throughout its history, Hope Baptist Church has focused on outreach to the community and has been involved in both local and worldwide mission activities. It continues to uphold the ideals and traditions of the founders in its worship and Sunday school programs. (2001)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Constituted in 1885 as Shiloh Baptist Church, this Lavaca County congregation of eight charter members first met in the Riggs Schoolhouse and baptized converts in Clark's Creek. Monthly worship gave way to a permanent sanctuary in December 1896, and in 1920 the members renamed themselves Hope Baptist Church for the community around them. The congregation grew through repeated expansions and hosted the Guadalupe Baptist Association's annual meeting in 1927.
Why it matters
Small rural congregations like this one were the social and spiritual backbone of frontier Texas communities, often predating and outlasting the towns that grew up around them.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Nancy Shows
Cuero, TX
Nancy Shows was among the pioneer settlers of the DeWitt County frontier in the 1850s, where her husband Adam Shows built the nearby Hebron Church around 1855. Mother of eight children, she represents the settler families who put down the first roots — homes, churches, and cemeteries — in this stretch of early Texas.
Hebron Community
Yoakum, TX
Hebron traces its beginnings to the 1840s, when the first wagon train of settlers reached the area and built their homes and a one-room log meeting house from the plentiful timber. The Hebron Missionary Baptist Church was formally organized in 1855 and still anchors the farming community, whose cemetery has received burials since 1867. A local school served the area into the early twentieth century.
Terryville
Yoakum, TX
Founded in the 1850s and named for the family of county judge James D. Terry, Terryville raised a cavalry company for the Confederate Army and had a post office by 1869. In the 1880s the post office and most residents relocated about 2.5 miles away, and the original office closed in 1907. Today an old cemetery marks the first townsite while a Baptist church survives at the second.
Joel Ponton
Hallettsville, TX
Joel Ponton's life traces the arc of Anglo settlement in early Texas. Arriving in 1833 and first settling at Gonzales, he served in the 1836 war that won Texas its independence before moving to the Navidad River, where he wore many frontier hats at once—farmer, preacher, doctor, merchant, and later county judge. In 1840 he survived a Comanche attack that left him with two arrows in his back, one of countless violent frontier encounters of that decade.