First Baptist Church of Devine

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and here's how I'm gonna pass it along to you. Way back in 1882, out in what would become Devine, Texas, two reverends and thirty-five determined souls decided they were going to build something that would last. The Rev.

D. Johnson and the Rev. C.B.

Hukill were the names, and together with those thirty-five charter members, they founded the First Baptist Church of Devine. First church organized in the whole town. Now, they didn't have a building.

Not yet. So where did they meet? Under a tree.

A prominent oak tree, right there in town. You have to picture it: a congregation gathering in the shade of an oak, making do, holding faith together with nothing but open sky and whatever breeze Medina County felt like offering that day. They also met in a local school building when the occasion called for it.

But a congregation with that kind of conviction wasn't going to worship under a tree forever. Around 1890, they erected their first real sanctuary. A roof.

Four walls. A place that was theirs. That was sanctuary number one.

Then came 1912, and they built a second sanctuary. The congregation was growin, the mission was deepening, and the work kept expandin beyond those original walls. And then, in 1951, right here at this very site, a third sanctuary rose up.

Three buildings across the decades, each one a chapter in the same long story. Now here's a detail that tells you something about the reach of this congregation. Calvary Baptist Church of Devine and Bethania Baptist Church, both of them, began as missions of this very congregation.

What started under an oak tree with two reverends and thirty-five members sent out roots in more than one direction. The guest speakers who came through those doors over the years were no small names either. Former Texas Governor Thomas M.

Campbell stood at that pulpit. Several former Presidents of Baylor University did the same. Not bad for a church that held its first services in the shade of a tree.

That oak is long gone from memory, but the congregation it sheltered is still standing.

What the marker says

This congregation, founded in 1882 by the Rev. D. Johnson, the Rev. C.B. Hukill, and 35 charter members, was the first church organized in Devine. The congregation met under a prominent oak tree in town and in a local school building before erecting a sanctuary about 1890. A second sanctuary was constructed in 1912 and a third was built at this site in 1951. Devine's Calvary Baptist and Bethania Baptist Churches began as missions of this congregation. Past guest speakers include former Texas Governor Thomas M. Campbell and several former Presidents of Baylor University. 1993