DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, the way Duane sees it on the road through Blanco County. Back in 1903, a man named Reverend Tom Smith rode into the picture — an evangelist working for the Texas Christian Missionary Society — and he didn't come to just shake a few hands. He organized a congregation right there in Johnson City, and he did it with twenty-six charter members standing alongside him.
Twenty-six. That's a founding. That's roots going into the ground.
Now, a church needs more than faith to stand up — it needs land. And that land came from Judge N. T.
Stubbs, who gave it over so something permanent could be built. By 1905 and into 1906, a sanctuary had been completed. A real building.
In those early years, the congregation didn't have a minister planted full-time in the pulpit — they were served by traveling ministers, men who moved from community to community carrying the word along with them like a saddlebag they never set down. And then there's the name that stops you cold when you read this marker. Among the members of that congregation was Lyndon B.
Johnson. He joined in 1923, at age fourteen, following his baptism in the Pedernales River. The Pedernales.
That river would echo through a lot of history. The church, the marker tells us, continues to be an important part of the life of Johnson City. Some things get built, and they just keep standing.
That's the whole story right there.
What the marker says
This congregation was organized in 1903 by the Rev. Tom Smith, an evangelist with the Texas Christian Missionary Society, and twenty-six charter members. Land for a church building was given by Judge N. T. Stubbs and a sanctuary was completed in 1905-06. In its early years the congregation was served by traveling ministers. Among the members was Lyndon B. Johnson, who joined the congregation in 1923 at age fourteen following his baptism in the Pedernales River. The church continues to be an important part of the life of Johnson City. (1989)