DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Del Rio's First Baptist Church — and it's a story that starts small and grows right along with the town itself. May 24, 1896. That's the date this whole thing kicks off.
A pastor named Frank Marrs — fresh from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary of Kentucky — walks into the picture alongside the Reverend Edwin S. Stucker and Mrs. Stucker, who were both missionaries.
Three people. That's your founding membership right there. Six charter members total when the church formally organized, but those three are the ones who set the wheel in motion.
Now the Stuckers weren't working out of a proper building. They were serving railroad workers and their families out of a railway car — a railway car called the Goodwill, sponsored by the American Baptist Sunday School Society of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Think on that for a moment.
A congregation on wheels, rolling ministry to the men and families who were themselves laying track across the Texas landscape. Not a steeple in sight, just the Goodwill and whoever needed it that day. As Del Rio grew — and it did grow — so did the congregation.
Through a land donation, the members moved their services to an adobe building on the southwest corner of Garfield and Pecan streets. That adobe served them until the congregation decided it was time for something more permanent. On February 17, 1925, they laid the cornerstone of a brick and stone building at that same corner location.
That sanctuary stood as home to the First Baptist congregation for thirty-five years. Thirty-five years is a long time. Long enough for a cornerstone to mean something.
So when 1960 came and the growing church built a new structure out on Avenue G — outside the downtown area — they didn't leave that cornerstone behind. They incorporated it right into the new building. Carried the old into the new, literal as you please.
The church kept building from there — classrooms, additional structures — and it didn't stop at its own walls. First Baptist acquired land throughout the region to build other churches, including what would become the congregations of El Buen Pastor and Northside Baptist. That founding vision of service, the one that started on a railway car called the Goodwill, branched out into something the founders may not have fully pictured but surely would have recognized.
There was a fire along the way. It destroyed the early church records — all that paper evidence of the beginning, gone. But here's the thing the marker makes a point of telling us: despite that loss, First Baptist Church has a strong sense of its history.
You can burn the documents; you can't burn what a community carries in its bones. More than a century after six charter members gathered around a missionary couple and a Kentucky seminary preacher, the First Baptist Church of Del Rio remains an important institution in the community. It started modest — as modest as a railway car can be — and it never forgot where it came from.
That's not nothing. That's the whole story.
What the marker says
On May 24, 1896, Pastor Frank Marrs joined the Rev. and Mrs. Edwin S. Stucker as founding members of Del Rio's First Baptist Church. Marrs was from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary of Kentucky, and the Stuckers were both missionaries. The couple served railroad workers and their families from a railway car named "Goodwill," sponsored by the American Baptist Sunday School Society of Philadelphia, Pa. The church formally organized with six charter members. As Del Rio grew, so did the congregation and the need for a larger structure. Through a land donation, members moved church services to an adobe building on the southwest corner of Garfield and Pecan streets. On February 17, 1925, they laid the cornerstone of a brick and stone building at that same location to replace the adobe structure. That sanctuary remained home to the First Baptist congregation for 35 years. In 1960, the growing church built a new structure on Avenue G, outside the downtown area, incorporating the cornerstone of the old building. Over the years, Del Rio's First Baptist Church has constructed additional buildings to use for classrooms. It has also acquired land throughout the region to build other churches, including what would become the congregations of El Buen Pastor and Northside Baptist. Despite a fire that destroyed early church records, First Baptist Church has a strong sense of its history and remains true to the vision of service set forth by the founders. It continues to be an important institution in the Del Rio community more than a century after its modest beginning. (2005)