FIRST - Founder of First Sunday School in Texas - Gonzales, Texas
Posted by: Groundspeak Premium Member iconions
N 29° 30.071 W 097° 27.074
14R E 650125 N 3264513
This simple granite and brass marker is located on the south east corner of the entrance to the First Baptist Church Annex - Church Square - 422 St. Paul in Gonzales, Texas.
Waymark Code: WMZA4D
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 10/07/2018
Published By:Groundspeak Premium Member Zork V
Views: 0

In Honor of
Thomas J. Pilgrim
Founder of Texas
First Sunday School
1829


PILGRIM, THOMAS J. (1804–1877). Thomas Pilgrim, early Baptist teacher and promoter of Sunday schools, the son of Thomas and Dorcas (Ransom) Pilgrim, was born at East Haddam, Connecticut, on December 14, 1804. He was licensed to preach and entered Hamilton Literary and Theological Institute at Colgate University at eighteen. His health was delicate; it failed from too much studying, and he headed for Texas after finishing school. He landed at Matagorda, Texas, in 1828 and later became interpreter and translator of Spanish for the Austin Colony.

He founded the Austin Academy, a boys' school, at San Felipe early in 1829. He also organized the first Sunday school in Texas, which was discontinued because it violated Mexican law against Protestant worship in the colony. In 1836 Pilgrim helped to capture a Mexican vessel near Matagorda.

He married Lucy M. Ives on November 15, 1839, and they settled at Gonzales in 1840. That same year he fought in the battle of Plum Creek. After his first wife's death in 1840, he married Sarah Jane Bennett, on April 3, 1841. They had thirteen children, but only seven survived childhood.

In 1846 or 1847 Pilgrim organized a Sunday school that endured about thirty years at Gonzales Baptist Church, where he was a deacon. During the 1850s and 1860s he served as chairman of the Committee on Sunday Schools for the Baptist state conventions. He was also an active Democrat and served as county treasurer and as justice of the peace for three terms. He died on October 30, 1877, and was buried in Gonzales.

- Texas State Historical Association

FIRST - Classification Variable: Person or Group

Date of FIRST: 01/01/1829

More Information - Web URL: [Web Link]

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