First Baptist Church of Luling

Duane's take

The way the official marker tells it, here's the story of the First Baptist Church of Luling. Seventeen. That's the number you want to hold onto at the start of this story.

Seventeen charter members, gathered together on December 3rd, 1875, with a little encouragement from the Reverend G. W. Lane, the district missionary, and they organized a congregation right here in Luling.

Seventeen people saying, we're going to build something. Now, they didn't have a building yet. Not even close.

So for a while, they worshipped outdoors, open sky overhead, and in the Masonic Lodge Hall, making do with what the town had to offer. That went on until the spring of 1876, when the first church building finally went up, on a lot donated by a man named Thomas W. Peirce.

Somebody gave the land. That matters. And then, in the fall of that same year, 1876, a revival swept through, and when the dust settled, the membership had grown from seventeen all the way to fifty.

Whatever was said at that revival, it landed. The congregation kept on, year after year, decade after decade. And then 1939 arrived, and with it, fire.

The sanctuary went. The education wing went. The parsonage went.

All of it, destroyed. That is a hard thing to absorb, everything you built, gone. But here is where the story turns.

On November 13th, 1939, the cornerstone for the present church building was laid. And for the dedicatory address that day, they had Governor W. Lee O'Daniel standing at that cornerstone, speaking over what would rise again.

Seventeen people started this. Fire couldn't finish it.

What the marker says

Seventeen charter members, with encouragement from the Rev. G. W. Lane, district missionary, organized this congregation on Dec. 3, 1875. Worship services were held outdoors and in the Masonic Lodge Hall until spring of 1876, when the first church building was erected on this lot donated by Thomas W. Peirce. A revival in the fall of 1876 increased the membership to 50. In 1939 a fire destroyed the sanctuary, education wing, and parsonage. Cornerstone for the present church building was laid on Nov. 13, 1939, with Gov. W. Lee O'Daniel delivering the dedicatory address.