First Baptist Church of Wharton

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Way out in Wharton County, the story of the First Baptist Church of Wharton goes back about as far as Texas stories go. We're talking about a time when there was no church building, no steeple, no pews, nothing but the open land and the people willing to gather on it.

Early Baptist worship services in this area were most likely held at the home of a man named William Kincheloe, one of the original Old 300 colonists, and perhaps as early as 1822. Think about that for a moment. Eighteen twenty-two.

Texas wasn't even Texas yet in the way we'd recognize it, and folks were already pulling chairs together and bowing their heads in William Kincheloe's home. Then, in 1829 or 1830, a Sunday School was started in or near what would become present-day Wharton. The congregation kept growing, kept gathering, and by 1847 it was formally organized.

That same year, the congregation, known then as the Colorado Church of Wharton, or the Wharton Baptist Church as it came to be called, became one of the founding members of the Colorado association. A founding member. Not a latecomer, not a follower.

One of the ones that helped build the table. The fellowship's first actual sanctuary, their first real house of worship, was built in the late 1850s. And then, in 1913, the congregation took the name it carries to this day: the First Baptist Church of Wharton.

From a colonist's front room in 1822 to a name that has held for over a century. Some things, it turns out, are built to last.

What the marker says

Early Baptist worship services in this area were most likely held at the home of "Old 300" colonist William Kincheloe, perhaps as early as 1822. A Sunday School was started in or near present-day Wharton in 1829 or 1830. Baptist congregation was organized by 1847. That year, the Colorado Church of Wharton, or Wharton Baptist Church as it came to be called, became one of the founding members of the Colorado association. The congregation's first sanctuary was built in the late 1850s. The fellowship has been known since 1913 as the First Baptist Church of Wharton. (Texas Sesquicentennial 1836-1986.)