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 R. C. Buckner didn't come to Texas with plans to start
an orphan's home. He and his family rode the 900
miles from Kansas for health reasons. But the Baptist
preacher did God's work wherever he landed.
He settled in Paris, Texas in 1859, when the state was
still recovering from the Mexican War and settlers
were fighting Native Americans, not to mention
disease and drought. The country was on the brink of Civil War, and there
was a lot of need. One of the biggest needs was that of an orphans' home.
Buckner had the ability to feel for others, especially children. This drove him to
organize a Deacon's convention in 1877 to discuss the creation of an orphanage.
Buckner initiated his first fundraising campaign, dropping a dollar in his hat
and passing it among those gathered under a large oak tree. He raised $27,
which provided the initial funds for the opening of the Buckner Orphans' Home,
now called Buckner Children's Home in Dallas, Texas. The home admitted its
first three orphans in 1879.
After that, Buckner used his favor with people and his mastery of words to rally
people together to fund other Baptist orphanages, as well as hospitals, schools
and support for the elderly. Houses for the elderly surrounded the
orphans' home, with the retired missionaries and pastors doubling as
grandparents for the kids.
It was a new movement of service. Before Buckner, there weren't any organized
Baptist benevolences in Texas. But he pulled Baptists of all convention affiliations
in a new direction in the name of charity. And the effort wasn't limited to Baptists;
he also gained the support of Methodists, Jews, Presbyterians, Lutherans and
Catholics who shared his values of helping those in need.
Buckner was ahead of his time. He worked towards healing between the races,
founding the first high school in North Texas for African Americans. He also broke ground
for women, who had nowhere to study theology before he submitted a
proposal to establish a women's training school.
When Buckner died in 1919, his sons, Joe and Hal, and his grandson, Robert
Cooke, took over his ministry. They were able to witness the organization's
continued growth and its branching out to other parts of the state.
Today, Buckner International operates programs throughout the world.
The organization's sixth president, Albert L. Reyes, oversees what is now one
of the largest private social care agencies of its kind in the United States.
Buckner International provides services that include residential child care,
orphan care, adoption and foster-care services, prevention programs, senior
adult services, missionary opportunities and a global humanitarian aid
program, Shoes for Orphan Souls, which provides shoes for needy children
around the world.
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