First Baptist Church of Hearne

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the First Baptist Church of Hearne. Now settle in, because this story covers a good stretch of Texas time, and it earns every year of it. April 18, 1869.

That's the date somebody circled on a calendar in Robertson County, when eleven charter members gathered and organized what they called the Hearne Station Baptist Church. Eleven people. You could seat them all at two kitchen tables, and yet they were planting something.

Then came the revivals. The marker tells us a fellow known as the Rev. Major Penn led great revivals, and after that kind of fire moves through a community, things tend to change.

The incorporators of the Southern Pacific Railroad gifted the congregation a site, and in 1877 a sanctuary went up. A real building. A place with walls and a roof and a future.

The story doesn't stop there. Fast forward to September 2, 1907. Pastor H.

R. Carroll and the congregation laid a cornerstone for a new auditorium, and on that occasion they took a new name too, the one that stuck: First Baptist Church. Names have weight, and that one carried the congregation forward through the better part of another century.

Then January 23, 1966, the present church was dedicated, this time under the leadership of the Rev. James Scirratt. And the congregation wasn't finished yet.

In 1969, the very same year the marker was placed, they organized and erected a building for a Mexican Baptist mission. Eleven charter members in 1869, and a hundred years on, still building. That's not a coincidence.

That's a congregation.

What the marker says

Organized April 18, 1869, as "Hearne Station Baptist Church," with 11 charter members. After great revivals under the Rev. "Major" Penn, and gift of a site by incorporators of Southern Pacific Railroad, a sanctuary was built in 1877. Pastor H. R. Carroll and congregation laid cornerstone Sept. 2, 1907, for a new auditorium, adopting name "First Baptist Church." On Jan. 23, 1966, present church was dedicated under leadership of the Rev. James Scirratt. This congregation organized and in 1969 erected a building for a Mexican Baptist mission.