First Baptist Church of Shamrock

Duane's take

The official marker for First Baptist Church of Shamrock is the one I'm tellin' you about right now, so let's get into it. Out on the Texas Panhandle, in Wheeler County, the town of Shamrock was still finding its feet when a man named the Reverend E. A.

Oller showed up in 1904 and organized what would become the second church established in that young town. Second. Not first.

That distinction matters to Baptists, and you'd best believe they remember it. The charter members who signed on at the beginning were Martha Anderson, A. N.

Holmes, Mrs. Kaffir, Mrs. Betty McGreggor, and J.

M. Woodley. Five names.

Five people willing to be the foundation of something. And where did this fledgling congregation first meet? The local schoolhouse.

No steeple, no pews, no organ. Just a room, some Bibles, and a whole lot of conviction. Two years on, in 1906, the congregation called its first regular pastor, the Reverend J.

W. Slaton. With that settled, they bought property over at Sixth and Wall, a corner worth remembering because it keeps showing up in this story.

The Sunday School got started, and by 1907 they had themselves a proper church structure. Something they built. Something they owned.

Then came 1922. Membership had climbed all the way to two hundred and forty-eight souls. That is a community.

That is a church that has taken root. And then, on March the thirteenth of that year, the sky had other plans. Lightning struck the original building.

And it did not just damage it. It burned that church to the ground. Gone.

Everything those charter members and their neighbors had built, gone in one night. Now here is where you find out what a congregation is really made of. The First Baptist Church of Shamrock did not fold up.

They used a theater. They borrowed space from the Methodists, which I imagine took some ecumenical grace on both sides. They found this site on Main Street, put up a temporary tabernacle to hold things together, and they kept going.

By 1926 they had completed a brand new church on that Main Street site. And back on the old corner of Sixth and Wall, they built a parsonage on the lot. The story keeps movin'.

In 1973, a third sanctuary was erected and dedicated. Three buildings. One congregation.

Through lightning and loss and borrowed pews, the same church. And through all of it, a long procession of pastors carried the work forward after the Reverend Slaton. The Reverends H.

G. Finley, R. F.

Hamilton, H. A. Goodwin, H.

C. Slaughter, J. Wood Arnspiger, James E.

McClurkin, John R. Rice, C. A.

Baxter, E. T. Smith, Vernie Pipes, E.

C. Derr, who came back for two calls, Clifton Tennison, James O. Todd, J.

Ed Byers, Meredith Wyatt, Jimmy Wilson, James Coffman, Murle Rogers, and Jim Scott. That is a long line of men who stood in that pulpit. Started with five charter members in a schoolhouse.

Survived a lightning strike that took everything. And kept right on going. That, right there, is the kind of stubborn faith that built this part of Texas.

What the marker says

Organized in 1904 by the Rev. E. A. Oller, this was the second church established in Shamrock. Charter members included Martha Anderson, A. N. Holmes, Mrs. Kaffir, Mrs. Betty McGreggor, and J. M. Woodley. First meeting place was the local schoolhouse. In 1906, the congregation called its first regular pastor, the Rev. J. W. Slaton, and bought property for building at Sixth and Wall. The Sunday School was started and church structure completed in 1907. In 1922 membership reached 248. On March 13 of that year, the original church building was struck by lightning and burned to the ground. After using a theater and the Methodist building, the Baptists bought this Main Street site, put up a temporary tabernacle, and completed a new church in 1926. A parsonage was built on the lot at Sixth and Wall. A third sanctuary was erected and dedicated in1973. Pastors succeeding the Rev. J. W. Slaton have been the Revs. H. G. Finley, R. F. Hamilton, H. A. Goodwin, H. C. Slaughter, J. Wood Arnspiger, James E. McClurkin, John R. Rice, C. A. Baxter, E. T. Smith, Vernie Pipes, E. C. Derr (two calls), Clifton Tennison, James O. Todd, J. Ed Byers, Meredith Wyatt, Jimmy Wilson, James Coffman, Murle Rogers, and Jim Scott. (1977)