First Baptist Church of Crawford
W.B. Bowen and P. O’Keiffe organized this congregation on August 3, 1878, with about a dozen original members. O’Keiffe served as the first pastor and A.F. Damon and Phil Noland were the first deacons. The church met in the Crawford schoolhouse in its early years. Brother J.M. Wright, who pastored here for two different terms in the 1800s, led the church to join the Leon River Baptist Association. The congregation struggled with membership in its first years, but in 1884 a revival resulted in 45 baptisms and 23 additions by letter to increase the church to 80 members.
After transferring to the McGregor Baptist Association, First Baptist Church of Crawford joined the Waco Baptist Association in 1890, where it has been a member for more than a century. Brother J.M.B. Gresham became pastor in 1893 and began work on the first meetinghouse for the church at 5th Street and Avenue D. Brother Gresham was also pastor at the rural communities of Coryell, Patton and Stampede. The one-room church sanctuary built at this site had curtains to divide the building into classrooms.
Brother M. Hale oversaw construction of a new church building in 1923, which served the congregation for more than 40 years. Groups including the Baptist Young People’s Union, Women’s Auxiliary and a Girls’ Auxiliary organized over the years to extend community outreach. The church’s evangelical work has been aided by nearby Baylor University; George W. Truett conducted a revival here while a Baylor student in the 1890s, Josiah B. Tidwell served the church in 1913, and a formal program to train Baylor’s divinity students here began in the 1950s. Since early in Crawford’s history, the church has been a spiritual and community leader.