Union Baptist Church
Carrollton, Dallas County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Earliest Baptist church in Dallas County; organized in a pioneer cabin, May 10, 1846, under leadership of the Rev. David Myers (1797 -1853). Charter members were Franklin Bowles, J. B. and Margaret Ann Lee, Letticia (Mrs. David) Myers, and John Miller Myers. Sarah and Thomas Keenan and Narcissus Wilburn joined soon afterward. The Baptists, aided by other settlers, in 1847 built their first meeting house on land given by Thomas and Sarah Keenan, near Keenan Cemetery (2.4 mi SSW), in present Farmers Branch. The Rev. David Myers, the original pastor, served until his death in 1853. Within a generation, Union Church was relocated in Carrollton, and by 1871 was occupying its third site. In May 1896, at a 3-day semicentennial celebration, a fourth sanctuary was dedicated on A. W. Perry land. The Perry Cemetery (1.3 mi. NNW) marks that site. As town grew toward the railroads, the church had moved by 1911 to Belt Line Road at Myers Street. In time it became the College Avenue Baptist Church. In 1961 present facilities were established, and the name was changed to Highland Baptist Church. From the beginning, Union Church had an important role in community life, with influence not only in sacred but also in secular affairs.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Organized in a pioneer cabin on May 10, 1846 — the very year Texas joined the Union — Union Baptist Church was the earliest Baptist congregation in Dallas County. A handful of settler families gathered under the Rev. David Myers, who served until his death in 1853, and built their first meeting house on land donated by Thomas and Sarah Keenan. Over the following decades the congregation followed the growing settlements, moving through several sanctuaries before becoming today's Highland Baptist Church.
Why it matters
Frontier churches like this were often the first institutions on the ground, anchoring scattered settlers into communities that would become North Texas towns.
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Related people
- · Rev. David Myers
- · Thomas Keenan
- · Sarah Keenan
Related events
- · Organization of Union Baptist Church (1846)
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Perry Cemetery
Carrollton, TX
When the Texas prairie town of Carrollton was still finding its footing, the death of Sarah Huffman Perry in 1896 gave the young community its first true burying ground. The next year her husband, A. W. Perry, deeded the land beside the Union Baptist Church, and scattered graves from private plots were gathered here to rest together. Most of its 482 graves belong to the pioneer families who broke this ground in North Texas.
Alex W. and Sarah Perry Homestead
Carrollton, TX
In 1844 Alexander Wilson Perry and his wife Sarah left Illinois to join the Peters Colony, buying this North Texas land and raising a simple frame house by the late 1850s. The Perrys became civic pillars, donating ground for a church, a cemetery, a school, and the railroad. Their son later reused the old home's lumber and stone to build the surviving residence, which his family gave to Carrollton as a museum and park in 1975.
Warner Cemetery
Carrollton, TX
In 1852, Robert and Sarah Dean Warner emigrated from Ireland to Texas, joining the Peters Colony and establishing a farm in this area. The family graveyard began with the 1873 death of Robert Warner, Jr., and holds ten marked graves—most of them Warner kin—along with at least one unmarked burial. The Warners and their descendants went on to become leaders in the Carrollton community.
First Methodist Society, Dallas County's
Farmers Branch, TX
When Isaac Blackman Webb moved his family from Missouri into the Peters Colony in the winter of 1843–44, he sent for a missionary, and in March 1844 the first known Methodist minister to visit the colony preached in a nearby log cabin. A society formed in 1845, and by 1846 an 18-by-18-foot log cabin rose on Webb's land as the colony's first church—doubling as schoolhouse, meeting hall, and post office. The congregation, now Webb Chapel United Methodist Church, claims continuous services since 1845.