In 1878, the Rev. C.G. Stephens, founder of the Red Gap community one mile west, joined the Rev. W.B. Cobb to organize the Red Gap Baptist Church, the forerunner of the First Baptist Church of Cisco. The Red Gap congregation had 13 charter members who met in a one-room log schoolhouse, and this small membership organized seven churches into the Red Gap Baptist Association. The junction of the Texas & Pacific Railroad and the Houston & Texas Central Railroad established Cisco and began the decline of Red Gap. In 1881, the congregation moved to Cisco and built a church house at 10th and Avenue E, then constructed a 36' x 50' building at this site the next year. A deadly tornado in 1893 completely destroyed that building, and a new structure completed the following year burned in 1924. Financial losses followed the collapse of an earlier oil boom that had brought rapid growth to Cisco and the church, and the congregation met in Cisco city hall and schoolhouses until another new structure could be completed. The fellowship also started a mission at Liberty Hill four miles northwest and a Spanish language mission in northeast Cisco, and former pastors of the church became presidents of Baptist colleges, missionaries, evangelists, and special service ministers.