FIRST BAPTIST FOCUS AND EVENTS

                                                                                 June  2026

First Baptist Church will be celebrating our 150th Anniversary in September. Each month some history of our church will be included in the newsletter. As far back as 1860 there were a group of settlers interested in the Baptist movement in Plano. This group under the leadership of Elder A.C. Kline held services in the Methodist Church. When Elder Kinne moved the movement became dormant. American Civil War was April 1861 – May 1865 and impacted the country. The Baptist movement was revived when Rev. Lanson Steward visited from Brooklyn, New York in September 1874. A small group continued to meet in their homes after Rev. Steward’s visit.

Rev. Steward returned in 1876 and brought with him new settlers from New York. Following the morning
service, September 10, 1876 the congregation voted to establish the Plano Baptist Church; that they make the
scriptures of the Old and New Testaments alone the standard of their faith and practice. Before the congregation had a church, they met in the  Church on Steward Street and later in local halls.. Later, when the Congregational Church disbanded many of the members of the Congregational Church joined the Baptist Church.

A Sunday School was organized in 1876 with an enrollment of 28. By 1877 the enrollment had reached 100.
In August 1881 it was voted to erect a house of worship. The building was dedicated on February 4, 1883 and
was named the First Baptist Church. The total cost was $4,800. The church was enlarged by adding 20 feet to the east, making the building 30 feet by 70 feet and re-dedicated in July 1886. The lot for the church building was deeded to the church by Lewis Steward of Plano, June 20, 1890 after the church completed mortgage payments.

When the Plano Harvester Company moved to West Pullman 1894, the church lost most of its members. The ten remaining members considered disbanding. Putting their faith in God, they worked to renew the Baptist work in Plano.

In 1895 the church was re-shingled, re-papered, electricity and city water were installed at a cost of $300.00

In the early 1900s, there was a period of depression. The church lacked funds to pay the minister’s entire salary. Records show that two pastors reduced their salaries to $10.00 per week. A group from Rumania settled in Plano in the early 1920s. The pastor worked with this group, teaching them
English. Some time later some of them became members of our church.