First Baptist Church of Claude

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the First Baptist Church of Claude, up in Armstrong County. Now, settle in, because this one goes back a good ways. May 18, 1890.

Nineteen charter members gathered together and decided they were going to plant a church right there in Claude. The Rev. B.

E. Hure served as moderator for that organizing day, and the Rev. Count C.

Storts stepped up as the first resident pastor. Nineteen people. That's it.

That's your foundation. You could seat them all at a long supper table and still have room for the biscuits. But that's how things got started on the Texas frontier.

A handful of folks with enough conviction to make something out of nothing. Now, they didn't have a building of their own right away. The congregation worshipped in the Presbyterian church building, borrowing that space while they figured out their next move.

They kept at it that way until 1899, when they finally raised a frame sanctuary, half a block south, on property that L. P. Greer donated to the cause.

Donated. Just gave it over. That kind of generosity has a way of holding a community together.

Then came 1918, and the congregation wasn't done growin'. A second structure went up on this very site, this time in brick. Solid.

Permanent. The kind of thing that says we are staying. And then, decades later, in 1971, the present facility was constructed and dedicated.

Three buildings across more than eighty years of Sundays. The marker puts it plainly, and I think it's worth repeating straight: in a pioneer environment, this church body served as an uplifting force to the settlers of Claude and the surrounding ranches and farms. Nineteen people showed up in 1890.

The rest, as they say, kept right on showin' up.

What the marker says

Organized on May 18, 1890, by 19 charter members, with the Rev. B. E. Hure as moderator. The Rev. Count C. Storts was the first resident pastor. The congregation worshipped in the Presbyterian church building until 1899, when a frame sanctuary was built (1/2 block south) on property donated by L. P. Greer. A second structure, of brick, was erected on this site in 1918. The present facility was constructed and dedicated in 1971. In a pioneer environment, this church body served as an uplifting force to settlers of Claude and surrounding ranches and farms.