DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the First Baptist Church of Salado. Now, before there was a church building, before there was even a congregation with a proper name, there was a creek. Salado Creek.
And as early as 1854, Baptist voices were rising up from its banks in revival — out in the open air, under a Texas sky, which when you think about it is as fine a ceiling as any sanctuary ever had. By about 1860, something remarkable was taking shape in that little community. Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, and members of the Church of Christ had all agreed to share one ecumenical house of worship.
Each group got their own all-day Sunday — on successive weeks — and I'll leave it to your imagination how those scheduling negotiations went. But it worked. And that spirit of shared worship laid the ground for what came next.
May 25, 1864. Eleven men and women gathered in the chapel of Salado College and officially organized the Salado Baptist Church of Christ. Eleven founders.
Say their names, because they deserve to be said: James L. Smith, David Hair, Harvey Chamberlain, Nannie Reed, Nellie Wemott, Sarah Hanford, Rachel Austin, Eva Cockrill, Mary L. Cearnals, Nannie Wilkinson, and Sallie Wilkinson.
Eleven people with a charter and a conviction. That group would eventually be renamed the First Baptist Church of Salado — and it didn't stay small for long. By June of that same year, 1864, nineteen more members had joined.
By 1877, the congregation had grown to a hundred and eleven. A community was finding its footing. In 1878, a two-story church and Masonic Hall went up on the north bank of Salado Creek near Main Street — built on land donated by Bell County pioneer and church member O.
T. Tyler. Two years after that, an ecumenical tabernacle was erected behind the church.
That old spirit of shared worship, still alive. The church reached even further in 1881, sending missionaries C. Z. and Kate Taylor — she was born Kate Crawford — all the way to Brazil.
From a revival on a creek bank to the other side of the world. That's the arc of this congregation. Back home, the Ladies' Aid Society was organized in 1889, a body that would evolve over the decades into the Women's Missionary Union and then the Women's Ministry — work that carried on well into the twentieth century, including a ministry to Mary Hardin-Baylor College in nearby Belton that began in 1958.
And among the notable members the marker sets down, there is one name that'll stop you in your tracks. George W. Baines served this church as pastor.
He later became President of Mary Hardin-Baylor. And if that name feels like it belongs to a bigger story — well, it does. George W.
Baines was the great-grandfather of President Lyndon B. Johnson. From eleven charter members in a college chapel on a May afternoon in 1864, to missionaries in Brazil, to a family line that would one day reach the White House.
Not bad for a congregation that got its start with nothing but a creek, a revival, and a Sunday to call their own.
What the marker says
A Baptist revival was held on the banks of Salado Creek as early as 1854. By about 1860, members of area Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian and Church of Christ denominations were meeting in an ecumenical house of worship. Each group held an all-day service on successive Sundays. On May 25, 1864, eleven men and women organized the Salado Baptist Church of Christ in the chapel of Salado College. Charter members of this group, later renamed First Baptist Church of Salado, were James L. Smith, David Hair, Harvey Chamberlain, Nannie Reed, Nellie Wemott, Sarah Hanford, Rachel Austin, Eva Cockrill, Mary L. Cearnals, Nannie Wilkinson and Sallie Wilkinson. A training union for young people soon followed. There were 19 additional members by June 1864 and 111 members by 1877. A two-story church and Masonic Hall on the north bank of Salado Creek near Main Street was erected in 1878 on land donated by Bell County pioneer and church member O. T. Tyler. Two years later, an ecumenical tabernacle was erected behind the church. The Baptist congregation sent missionaries C. Z and Kate (Crawford) Taylor to Brazil in 1881. The Ladies' Aid Society, later the Women's Missionary Union and then the Women's Ministry, was organized in 1889. This work continued in the 20th century, marked by the beginning of the ministry to Mary Hardin-Baylor College in nearby Belton in 1958. Notable members of the First Baptist Church of Salado include George W. Baines (the great-grandfather of President Lyndon B. Johnson) who served as pastor and was later President of Mary Hardin-Baylor. Others were educators at Salado College and beloved community members. (2000)