Rev. Daniel Parker
Elkhart, Anderson County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Pioneer Baptist minister; born in Virginia April 6, 1781; died Dec. 3, 1844. His wife Patsy Dixon Parker, born Jan. 17, 1783; died Dec. 1, 1846.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
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.
Why it matters
Frontier preachers like Parker planted enduring religious institutions in the newly settled Republic of Texas, part of the wave of Americans who brought their churches westward.
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Related people
- · Daniel Parker
- · Patsy Dixon Parker
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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.
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.
Old Pilgrim Church
Elkhart, TX
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.
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.