Baptist General Association of Texas

Baptist General Association of Texas. . Chatfield, a prosperous farming community, was the site of the organization of the Baptist General Association of Texas on July 17, 1868. Originating in the mid-1840s as a trading post established near a spring by Indian trader Norman Chatfield, it grew in the 1850s with the help of a former riverboat captain from Kentucky, Robert Hodge, who settled in the area and committed to building up the community by laying out a town site and encouraging immigration. , For some years, friction existed within the Baptist denomination in Texas over educational issues and missions work. Members of the Baptist State Convention broke away from their parent organization in 1853, and eventually formed the Convention of Eastern Texas in 1855. The diverging group reorganized again as the Baptist General Association of Texas in a meeting from Friday, July 17, to Monday, July 20, 1868, northeast of here in a building used as a school, lodge and church. For the next decade and a half, the two bodies were rivals for dominance in Texas, as were their two schools: Baylor University, at the time located in Independence, Washington County, and backed by the state convention; and Waco University in McLennan County, supported by the General Association. Under prominate Baptist such as R.C. Buckner, Rufus Burleson, and Josiah Leake, who as Chatfield's pastor had hosted its first meeting, the association outpaced the state convention in influence. In 1886, the Baptist General Association merged with the Baptist State Convention to form the present statewide umbrella organization, the Baptist General Convention of Texas. The two schools also consolidated and formed what is present-day Baylor University in Waco.