Billington Baptist Church - Limestone County, TX
N 31° 41.312 W 096° 52.536
14R E 701357 N 3507873
"Established 1889", the Billington Baptist Church is located in front of the Billington Cemetery on Limestone County Rd 114 in what used to be Billington, TX, now a scattered rural community of maybe a few dozen people.
Waymark Code: WM147H6
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 05/06/2021
Views: 2
This waymark probably won't be useful to those looking for a guide to service times, as there are none listed on the sign, and even web-spidered directory listings come up short. The church also goes by the "Billington Church", with the same fruitless results. They could be inactive, with the church being used as a chapel/tabernacle. In any event, the grounds are very well-maintained, and there's a second building with modern restrooms. The exterior of the sanctuary looks fairly modern, but there is a certain vibe to it that suggests that there may be an older building underneath.
A 1997 Texas Historical Marker provides some information about the cemetery:
Tennessee native E.J. Billington settled in this area with his family in 1854. In 1890 he sold one-half acre of land to John Ellison and Gus Haney on which a church and cemetery were established. The first recorded burial was that of John Sanders in 1890. Named for Billington, the nearby town was once a thriving community with a school, post office, and several stores. In 1900 additional land was purchased from the Billington estate for the cemetery, which contains 115 marked graves and 12-15 unmarked graves. The Billington Cemetery continues to serve the area.
They're a little coy about Ezekiel Jackson Billington, although he gets his due about five miles up the road at the Mt. Antioch Cemetery. Another Texas Historical Marker there notes that Mr. Billington was a Baptist minister, and he established a church there in 1855, naming it Mt. Antioch Baptist Church. He also had a hand in establishing other Baptist churches in the area -- some on the other side of the county -- and as noted, he was the benefactor for this church and cemetery. The Limestone County Historical Commission is able to provide some additional information, but even then, there is room for confusion. The community here was initially called Antioch, getting its post office in 1886 and taking Billington's name to honor his prominence as an early settler and landowner. They also mention the 1890 purchase made by John Ellison and Gus Haney, noting that the Antioch Church -- this one -- followed. However, they also give 1876 as the year of the establishment of "the church at Billington" (which wasn't yet "Billington"), explaining that initial members had come from the Mt. Antioch Church up the road, and so it was initially the "Antioch Church." After Mr. Billington's death in 1896, the adjacent cemetery where he rests in peace was renamed in his honor, and in 1900, the Antioch Church was renamed Billington Baptist Church. Where "1889" fits in is pure speculation: Possibly the "Antioch Church" was a union church that drifted towards being fully Baptist by 1889.