First Baptist Church of Cotulla

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Way out in La Salle County, in the town of Cotulla, there's a Baptist congregation with a story that goes all the way back to the early 1880s. And it starts, the way a lot of stories out here start, with the man who put the town on the map.

In 1882, Joseph Cotulla, the founder of the town itself, gave land for a Baptist Church building. That's a foundation before the foundation, you might say. The ground was given before a single board was nailed.

Then, about 1883 or 1884, a missionary by the name of the Rev. W. D.

Johnson came through and organized the fellowship. Now, a congregation without a building still needs a place to worship, and the Methodists, bless them, opened their sanctuary and let the Baptists share it. That arrangement held until 1889, when a frame building finally went up at this very site.

And for the occasion of that first sermon in the new facility, they didn't call on just anybody. They called on the Rev. John Van Epps Covey.

The marker calls him a well-known Baptist minister and educator, born in 1821. He lived in Cotulla and served as pastor there at times, right up until his death in 1898. A man who preached the first word in that new building and kept on preaching in that community until the end of his days.

Then the story jumps forward, as stories in old congregations tend to do, and in 1948 a new church building was constructed, this time under the Rev. Jesse Cooke. From Joseph Cotulla's donated land, to a borrowed Methodist pew, to a frame building, to a new structure in 1948.

That's not just a church. That's a town growing up around its faith.

What the marker says

In 1882 Joseph Cotulla, founder of the town, gave land for the Baptist Church building. About 1883 or 1884 a missionary, the Rev. W. D. Johnson, organized this fellowship. The congregation worshiped in the Methodist sanctuary until a frame building was erected at this site in 1889. The well-known Baptist minister and educator, the Rev. John Van Epps Covey (1821-1898), preached the first sermon in the new facility. He lived in Cotulla and served as pastor at times until his death. In 1948 a new church building was constructed under the Rev. Jesse Cooke.