Old Pilgrim Church
Elkhart, Anderson County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Replica, oldest Protestant Church in Texas. As Pilgrim Primitive Baptist Church, constituted July 28, 1833, in Crawford County, Illinois. Under guidance of Elder Daniel Parker, a "moving arm" of established church, 11 members entered Texas, Jan., 1834. First building, 1848. (1965)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
This replica commemorates what is remembered as the oldest Protestant church in Texas. Constituted as the Pilgrim Primitive Baptist Church in Crawford County, Illinois, in 1833, a "moving arm" of eleven members led by Elder Daniel Parker carried the congregation into Texas in January 1834, erecting their first building in 1848.
Why it matters
The Pilgrim congregation marks the arrival of organized Protestant worship in Mexican Texas, on the eve of the revolution that would make it a republic.
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Related people
- · Daniel Parker
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Pilgrim Predestinarian Regular Baptist Church
Elkhart, TX
Elder Daniel Parker organized this Predestinarian Baptist congregation in Crawford County, Illinois, in 1833, then carried it whole into Mexican Texas — a clever way around the colony's restrictions on organizing new churches. Its first Texas meeting was held in Stephen F. Austin's Colony on January 20, 1834, and a log meetinghouse followed in 1839. It is remembered as the first Baptist church in Texas.
Miles Bennett
Elkhart, TX
Miles Bennett came from Indiana to the fledgling Republic of Texas and took up arms in the Army of Texas in 1836, the year Texans won their independence at San Jacinto. He died young in 1849, but his widow Laura outlived him by more than seventy years, a common frontier story of short-lived soldiers and long-widowed wives. Markers like this one preserve the names of the ordinary men who filled the ranks during Texas's fight for nationhood.
Rev. Daniel Parker
Elkhart, TX
Born in Virginia in 1781, Daniel Parker became a pioneer Baptist minister who carried his faith to the Texas frontier before his death in 1844. His wife, Patsy Dixon Parker, is remembered alongside him. The Parker name loomed large in early Anderson County history.
Dickerson Parker
Elkhart, TX
Born in Tennessee in 1812, Dickerson Parker fought at the Battle of San Jacinto, the decisive 1836 clash that won Texas its independence, before his death in 1844. His wife, Lucinda Eaton Parker, is remembered with him. Both were part of the earliest Anglo settlement of Anderson County.