DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the First Baptist Church of Johnson City, right there in Blanco County. Now, some stories start with a grand cathedral, a crowd of hundreds, a choir that shakes the rafters. This one starts with seven people.
Just seven. And depending on which dates you trust — July 19th and 20th, or maybe August 16th and 17th — it was the summer of 1879 when those seven souls came together and formed the Missionary Baptist Church of Christ, the congregation that would become the First Baptist Church of Johnson City. Leading the way was the Reverend James E.
Bell, born in 1843, who held services in the schoolhouse. Not a church — a schoolhouse. You work with what you've got.
And they did work. Because by 1900, they had themselves an actual church building right there on that spot. Now, there was no lumberyard around the corner.
No, that lumber came in on wagons — hauled all the way from Austin. Think about that road. Think about those wagons.
Every plank and board on that building earned its place. The congregation kept growing, kept going. In 1951 they dedicated a five-thousand-five-hundred-square-foot building — a real statement of faith and community.
And the membership rolls over the years? Well, they included some members of President Lyndon B. Johnson's family.
But here's where the story takes a hard turn. In 1966, that 1951 building was destroyed by fire. What the congregation built with devotion and dedication, fire took.
That's a grief with no soft edges. They didn't quit. Two years later, in 1968, the present structure rose in its place.
A congregation that started with seven people in a schoolhouse had now rebuilt — twice — and was still standing. And the work kept reaching outward. By 1978, the church expanded its mission work to include sponsorship of the Pedernales Valley Mission.
Seven people. A schoolhouse. Wagons full of lumber from Austin.
And nearly a century later, a congregation still plantin' seeds. That's the story the ground in Johnson City holds.
What the marker says
In 1879, on July 19-20 or August 16-17, seven members formed the Missionary Baptist Church of Christ, present First Baptist Church. The Rev. James E. Bell (b. 1843) held services in the schoolhouse. Lumber for the original church building, erected here in 1900, was hauled in wagons from Austin. A 5,500-square feet building dedicated in 1951 and destroyed by fire in 1966 was replaced by the present structure in 1968. Some members of President Lyndon B. Johnson's family attended this church. In 1978 mission work of the church expanded to include sponsorship of Pedernales Valley Mission. (1979)