Baptismal Font at St. Paul’s on the Plains

When Sallie McKay Coleman came to the plains of Lubbock County in the 1890’s, she came the way all people traveled at that time. Horse, mule or wagon. There were no trains or established roads with signposts pointing the way. On arrival she was met by buffalo grass, gama grass, little bluestem and a host of other flora that was no doubt unfamiliar to her. A few buildings had been established by then, but no small clapboard church with a bell tower sending out the Sunday call to worship. She was 300 miles from her beloved Episcopal church. She might have thrown herself down onto a patch of little bluestem to cry but she didn’t. The only thing to do was to begin reading Morning Prayer every day for the next 8 years. News of Sallie and her devotion traveled to Dallas, inspiring one Bishop Garrett to travel several times during those years to serve Communion to
Sallie. Small beginnings to what would become a thriving Episcopal church here on the plains.

In 1910 at the 15th Annual Council of the Diocese of Dallas, Sallie was listed as
a communicant on May 11th, supporting the admission of St. Paul’s on the Plains as a mission church. St. Andrew’s of Amarillo was voted as a parish church. Things were looking up. Sadly, Sallie never saw the small clapboard church built on 15th and Ave. O, nor did she live to hear the morning bell as it called people to worship. By December of 1910 she had passed away.

It wasn’t long before her son, Max Coleman, provided the church with a baptismal font with “Sallie McKay Coleman” chiseled into the white marble. Somehow this baptismal font has managed to remain intact down through the years, moving from 15th and Ave. O to Ave. Q and finally to its present location here at St. Paul’s on the Plains, Ave. X.

Submitted by Cary Harriger, Sexton
St. Paul’s on the Plains