Organized in a log cabin in 1846 as the Gilmer Missionary Baptist Church of Christ, the congregation had 22 members in 1854 with the Rev. J. M. Griffin as pastor, grew to 100 members by 1869, and erected its first church building in the early 1870s about one block north of this site. Walter Grimmer organized the first Sunday School in 1878, a Ladies Aid Society was organized in 1895, and a new brick sanctuary was erected in 1896. The first full-time pastor, the Rev. J. L. Mahan, was called in 1904. The congregation purchased land here in 1909, and in 1911 erected a new sanctuary containing its first baptistry; that year, with a membership of 410, it became a charter member of the Pittsburg Baptist Association. A parsonage was built here in 1918 and an education building in 1925, and in 1929 the church was renamed First Baptist Church of Gilmer. Over the years, the church remodeled existing structures and added new buildings to serve its growing congregation, which grew with the community and continues to support missionary activities and serve the area with a variety of outreach programs.