Leesville Baptist Church
Leesville, Gonzales County, Texas
Marker Inscription
The first meeting place of this congregation, organized in 1875, was destroyed by a storm in 1886. The membership then moved across O'Neal Creek to this site, purchased from pioneer settler N. H. Guinn, and erected this simple frame church in 1887-88. The steeple which once topped the building was removed in 1924. After a disastrous flood in 1936, Leesville was relocated along the state highway (3/4 mi. W). This church is one of the structures that mark the old townsite. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1976.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Organized in 1875 in the small Gonzales County settlement of Leesville, this Baptist congregation lost its first meeting house to an 1886 storm, then rebuilt across O'Neal Creek on land bought from pioneer settler N. H. Guinn, raising this plain frame church in 1887-88. Its steeple came down in 1924, and after a devastating 1936 flood the town itself picked up and moved three-quarters of a mile west to the new state highway. The church stayed put, becoming one of the last markers of the original townsite.
Why it matters
It preserves the footprint of a vanished rural Texas town, a reminder of how flood, weather, and the pull of the highway repeatedly reshaped where nineteenth-century communities could survive.
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Related people
- · N. H. Guinn
Related events
- · 1936 Leesville flood
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Gonzales-San Antonio Road
Gonzales County, TX
When Green DeWitt planted his colony on the Guadalupe River in 1825, he ordered a road cut to link his capital at Gonzales with San Antonio, and surveyor Byrd Lockhart opened the eighty-mile route in 1827—its mileage notched into roadside oak trunks. Settlers, traders, and Mexican travelers braved the road despite the danger of raids. A decade later it became a thoroughfare of the Texas Revolution: the 'Immortal 32' marched down it from Gonzales to reinforce the Alamo, and Santa Anna's army followed after the fort fell.
1835 Attack at Sandies Water Hole
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Raids were a constant fear in DeWitt's Colony after its 1825 founding, and Green DeWitt built a fort at Gonzales and begged Mexican authorities for troops and a cannon. In 1835 a party of thirteen French and Mexican traders bound from Natchitoches to Mexico camped at Sandies Water Hole, where a large force—believed to be Comanche—fell upon them. The fight lasted hours and left all thirteen dead, and with no help forthcoming from the Mexican government, such attacks continued at the site into Texas statehood.
Dewville United Methodist Church
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Sandies Chapel Cemetery
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