HistoricSiteMarkers
Reconstruction & Gilded Age

Mineral Springs Primitive Baptist Church

Glen Rose, Somervell County, Texas

Marker Inscription

On Sunday, May 30, 1886, Elder Wilson Hufner and W. L. Rogers founded this church in nearby Post Oak. Charter members were J. O. Soap, his wife, Rebecca, and Mrs. Fannie May. The church first joined the Village Creek Association, but in 1899 joined 15 other area churches to form the Duffau Association, the largest Primitive Baptist Church Association in Texas. A church house built in Post Oak in 1906 was moved to this site ca. 1920. In 1948, the Roden family donated eight acres to the Duffau Association. Beginning in 1955, Elder Berley Welch and his wife, Treasure, of Wichita Falls founded the Texas Youth Camp and held summer camps here. The present sanctuary was moved here in 1960.

Erected by Texas Historical Commission

The Story

Founded in 1886 by Elder Wilson Hufner and W. L. Rogers in the community of Post Oak, this Primitive Baptist congregation joined with fifteen neighboring churches in 1899 to form the Duffau Association, the largest of its kind in Texas. Its meeting house was relocated to this site around 1920, and in the mid-1950s the grounds became home to a summer youth camp. The present sanctuary was moved here in 1960.

Why it matters

Small rural congregations like this one were the social and moral anchors of frontier Texas communities, binding scattered farm families together across generations.

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Themes & tags

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