First Baptist Church of Breckenridge

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm just along for the ride. Now, if you want to talk about a congregation that's seen some Texas, pull up a chair. The First Baptist Church of Breckenridge, Stephens County, is believed to have been organized way back in 1876.

And I say believed because even the folks who wrote this history had to hedge just a little. But organized they were. In those early days, the congregation didn't have a building to call their own, so they made do the way Texans do.

They met in members' homes. They borrowed space in local church buildings. They even gathered at the county courthouse when they had to.

And leading them through all of it was their first minister, the Reverend C. C. Slaughter.

Now that is a name that sounds like it belongs in a pulpit and a tall tale at the same time, and here he is, doing both. Then came 1895. The members built something of their own, a wood building, right here on this site.

It served for many years. Many years. You can almost hear the hymns soaking into the grain of that old lumber.

But wood gives way to time, and in 1921, the congregation raised a modern three-story edifice to replace what had come before. Three stories. In 1921.

That is a statement of faith in brick and mortar if I have ever heard one. The additions kept coming. Notably, in 1937, the Bates Chapel was added.

And the organizations that grew up inside those walls are something to note on their own. The Women's Missionary Union formed in 1919, and they've been at it ever since. Then in 1940, somebody had the inspired idea to start a group called the Roughneck Bible Class.

The Roughneck Bible Class. That name did not arrive by accident in an oil country town, and it has endured. To this day, the First Baptist Church of Breckenridge remains active in missionary programs and community outreach, still standing on the same site where that wood building went up in 1895.

From courthouse steps to a three-story church, from a borrowed pew to the Roughneck Bible Class. Some congregations just refuse to be a small story.

What the marker says

Believed to have been organized in 1876, the First Baptist Church met in members' homes, local church buildings and the county courthouse with the Rev. C. C. Slaughter as their first minister. In 1895 the members erected a wood building on this site which served for many years. In 1921 a modern 3-story edifice replaced other structures. Many additions have been made, notably the Bates Chapel in 1937. Longtime First Baptist Church organizations include the Women's Missionary Union, formed in 1919, and the "Roughneck Bible Class" formed in 1940. The church remains active in missionary programs and community outreach. (1998)