First Baptist Church of Olton

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the First Baptist Church of Olton, out in Lamb County. Now settle in, because this story starts the way a lot of good Texas stories start, out in the middle of nowhere, at somebody's farmhouse, with a preacher and a purpose. The year was 1903.

The Rev. J.W. Winn, a missionary riding with the Staked Plains Missionary Baptist Association, made his way to a farmhouse northeast of what would become Olton.

And on that day, right there in somebody's front room, the first Missionary Baptist Church in all of Lamb County was organized. Just like that. No grand building, no steeple pointing at the sky.

Just faith and a few willing souls and a man named Winn who showed up when it mattered. The members called the Rev. Richbourg to serve as their first pastor, and for years, that congregation kept meeting the same way they started, in area homes, moving from parlor to parlor, keeping the thing alive.

Then came 1908, and something shifted. The members joined with area residents to construct a union church building, a shared space that several denominations could call their own. That was the frontier spirit talking, practical and generous in the same breath.

But the Baptists weren't done growin into something of their own. By 1923, under the leadership of the Rev. G.I.

Britain, the congregation built its very first sanctuary. Their own place. Their own roof.

And the story doesn't stop there. Membership doubled within a few years, and the church kept right on going, serving its community through education, worship, and missionary work. What started at a farmhouse northeast of a town that didn't even have a name yet had put down roots deep enough to last.

That's the kind of beginning that tends to stick.

What the marker says

In 1903, the Rev. J.W. Winn, a missionary with the Staked Plains Missionary Baptist Association, led a meeting at a farmhouse northeast of what became Olton. That day, the first Missionary Baptist Church in Lamb County was organized. The members called the Rev. Richbourg as their first pastor. After meeting in area homes for many years, members joined area residents in 1908 in constructing a union church building to be used by several denominations. In 1923, under the leadership of the Rev. G.I. Britain, the Baptist congregation built its first sanctuary. The membership doubled within a few years and continued to grow and serve its community through education, worship and missionary work. (2004)