First Baptist Church of McGregor

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the First Baptist Church of McGregor. Pull up a chair, because this one goes back a good ways. All the way back to 1858, when a congregation called the Onion Creek Baptist Church got its start, ten miles southwest of where we're standing now, out at what's present-day Eagle Springs in Coryell County.

That's your seed. From those Onion Creek members, the Comanche Springs Baptist Church took shape, and from Comanche Springs, the story really picks up speed. In 1884, the Reverend John McClain and the Reverend Martin Isbill, along with about thirty members of that Comanche Springs congregation, formally established the First Baptist Church of McGregor.

Thirty people. That's it. Remember that number.

Two years later, in 1886, they put up their first church building right here on this very site. By 1890 they had joined the Waco Baptist Association, which trusted McGregor enough to hold its meetings here in 1895 and again in 1907. And the congregation kept growing.

By 1911, Sunday school enrollment had climbed to two hundred and eighty pupils. Now here's where the Ladies Aid Society enters the story, and you'd do well to take note of them. Starting in 1908, they got to work raising funds, and what those efforts produced was a brand new sanctuary, completed in 1914.

That is the power of organized women with a purpose. In 1923 the church called its first full-time pastor, a milestone in its own right, and then in the early 1940s a parsonage was constructed. The congregation kept on.

By 1960, membership had reached six hundred and forty-two, a long way from those original thirty souls. A new brick parsonage followed in 1961, and in 1969 a new sanctuary was completed. Through all of it, local outreach, state, national, and international missionary work, this church never stopped reaching beyond its own walls.

From thirty people in 1884 to a congregation that spans the globe in its ambitions. That seed planted back in 1858 grew into something that lasted.

What the marker says

This congregation traces its origin to the establishment in 1858 of the Onion Creek Baptist Church (10 miles SW at present-day Eagle Springs, Coryell County). Members of the Onion Creek congregation later organized the Comanche Springs Baptist Church. The Rev. John McClain and the Rev. Martin Isbill and about 30 members of Comanche Springs Baptist Church established the First Baptist Church of McGregor in1884. The congregation erected its first church building at this site in 1886. In 1890 they joined the Waco Baptist Association which met in McGregor in 1895 and 1907. By 1911 Sunday school enrollment had grown to 280 pupils. Successful fund-raising activities begun by The Ladies Aid Society in 1908 resulted in the building of a new sancturary in 1914. In 1923 the church called its first full-time pastor and in the early 1940s a parsonage was constructed. The church grew steadily and by 1960 membership in the congregation reached 642. A new brick parsonage was built in 1961 and in 1969 a new sancturary was completed. First Baptist Church of McGregor has historically supported numerous local, state, national, and international missionary activities and a number of community outreach programs and activites.