Founding Site of First Baptist Church of Goliad

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Picture a single oak tree, one block west of the Goliad town square, sometime in May of 1849. No building.

No pews. No steeple catching the morning light. Just twelve Baptists and the shade of that tree.

Now, twelve doesn't sound like much. But what those twelve did under those branches has lasted well past anybody's reckoning. The Reverend John Freeman Hillyer officiated at the meeting, and right there in the open air, the group organized the first Baptist church in the area.

Think about that. The first. Not the biggest, not the grandest.

The first. The charter members are worth naming, because they're all part of the story. There was the pastor's wife, Mary, and their children Ann and Hamilton B.

Hillyer. There were Hillyer family slaves, Jacob and Eliza. There were Pryor and Mary Lea.

George Brightman and his daughter Emeline Russell. And William and Philania Crow. Twelve people, a handful of families, and one oak tree.

That was the foundation. Now here's the thing that'll make you sit with it a minute. After that founding moment, the congregation spent fifty years meeting in borrowed facilities.

Fifty years of knocking on other people's doors, setting up and breaking down, making do. Then, in 1899, the congregation's first permanent home was finally erected. The First Baptist Church of Goliad had a place to call its own.

And by 1852, well before that building ever went up, the group had already established membership in the Colorado Baptist Association. The roots were going down long before the walls went up. The First Baptist Church of Goliad continues to serve the area to this day.

Started under an oak tree. Still standing.

What the marker says

A group of twelve Baptists met under an oak tree one block west of the Goliad town square on this site in May 1849. The Rev. John Freeman Hillyer officiated at the meeting, during which the twelve organized the first Baptist church in the area. The charter members included the pastor's wife, Mary, and their children Ann and Hamilton B. Hillyer; Hillyer family slaves Jacob and Eliza; Pryor and Mary Lea; George Brightman and his daughter Emeline Russell; and William and Philania Crow. The group established membership in the Colorado Baptist Association by 1852. After fifty years of meeting in borrowed facilities, the congregation's first permanent home was erected in 1899. The First Baptist church of Goliad continues to serve the area. (1999)