Robert Cooke Buckner
Paris, Lamar County, Texas
Marker Inscription
(January 3, 1833 - April 9, 1919) Outstanding Baptist minister. Born in Tennessee, he moved to Texas 1859, and became pastor of this congregation in 1861. A new church building was erected here, and through his guidance, the congregation grew. First Baptist "Ladies Aid" group in Texas was founded here, 1861. In 1873, Dr. Buckner resigned to edit the publication "Religious Messenger." In 1877, he led in founding a Baptist orphans home. Under a large, shady oak, he gave the first dollar for the Dallas home, which, on the base he laid, has grown today into the well-known Buckner "Benevolences." (1968)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Robert Cooke Buckner arrived in Texas in 1859 and became a leading Baptist minister, pastoring this Paris congregation and helping charter the first Ladies' Aid group in the state. In 1877 he founded a Baptist orphans' home, giving the first dollar himself under a shady oak in Dallas. That seed grew into the sprawling network of charities known today as Buckner Benevolences.
Why it matters
His work turned frontier-era faith into enduring social welfare institutions, part of the broader Gilded Age movement that built America's private orphanages and charities.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Robert Cooke Buckner
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
First Baptist Church of Paris
Paris, TX
The Rev. Willis M. Pickett and six charter members organized the Union Baptist Church of Paris in 1854, and it grew into First Baptist Church. Among its pastors was the Rev. Robert Cooke Buckner, whose concern for orphans while at Paris grew into the wide-reaching Buckner Baptist Benevolences. The congregation lost its 1895 building to the great Paris fire of 1916 but rebuilt and continued a long record of local and foreign mission work.
Central Presbyterian Church
Paris, TX
Organized in 1844 during the Republic of Texas as the First Cumberland Presbyterian Church, this Paris congregation was founded by circuit-riding minister Samuel J. Corley. It grew through the long pastorate of Dr. Charles Manton, whose 1908 funeral drew flags to half-mast across town. After the devastating 1916 Paris fire destroyed its 1891 sanctuary, the congregation raised this Gothic Revival church in 1917, rich with stained glass and known for its music and education programs.
Lamar County
Paris, TX
Carved from Red River County in 1840 and organized the following year, Lamar County honors Mirabeau B. Lamar, second president of the Republic of Texas and a champion of public education remembered as the 'Father of Texas education.' The county seat wandered in its early years — from Lafayette to Mount Vernon before settling at Paris, a town first known by the homely name Pinhook.
Antioch Cemetery and Old Antioch Church of Christ
Biardstown, TX
Founded in the first years of Texas statehood between 1846 and 1848, this was the first Church of Christ in Lamar County, organized by Elder Thomas Barrett with the pioneer family of Rebecca Stone Biard, who had come from Alabama to start the Biardstown community. William W. Biard donated his 20-foot log cabin—outfitted with split-log seats and a stick-and-dirt chimney—for the first sanctuary, and at his mother's death in 1848 he gave the land for the cemetery, where her grave was the first. Both the log church and its successor doubled as community schools, and though the congregation disbanded around 1920, burials continue to this day.