All Saints' Episcopal Church
Weatherford, Parker County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Bishop Alexander C. Garrett of Dallas visited Weatherford in June 1875. He organized a mission church here the following February with five communicants. The congregation called the Rev. Edwin Wickens, then serving at a mission at Fort Worth, to preach the fourth Sunday of each month as their first priest in charge. A small stone church was completed in 1879 on land that later became the site of the Weatherford City Hall. The early years proved to be financially challenging for All Saints' Episcopal Church, and by 1921 the bishop had sold the church property. The congregation reorganized, and new property on this site was given by parishioner Maggie Coleman Foat in memory of her daughter. Services were held in the homes of members until a new building was constructed in 1923 for $10,424.00. A rectory was built in the same year for the new priest, The Rev. E. S. Barlow. Upon her death in 1943, Maggie Coleman Foat left stock in the First National Bank of Dallas to be used for the salary of a full-time priest. Noted portrait painter Douglas Chandor (1897-1953) served on the vestry from 1945 to 1947. A parish hall was placed on the premises in 1947, and in 1964 the church and rectory were joined to form an educational building. In 1996 the church celebrated 120 years of rich history and heritage. All Saints' Episcopal Church of Weatherford continues to uphold the traditions of its founders. (1998)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Founded as a small mission in 1876 with just five communicants, All Saints' Episcopal Church grew alongside the frontier town of Weatherford through decades of financial struggle and rebuilding. A stone church, a lost property, a generous parishioner's memorial gift, and a new 1920s sanctuary all mark its persistence; among its later members was noted portrait painter Douglas Chandor. Its long history mirrors the slow maturing of a North Texas community into a settled town.
Why it matters
The congregation's survival through hardship shows how faith communities helped stabilize and sustain young frontier towns across a century of change.
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Related people
- · Alexander C. Garrett
- · Maggie Coleman Foat
- · Douglas Chandor
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
First Baptist Church
Weatherford, TX
Organized in 1856 as the United Missionary Baptist Church of Christ at Weatherford, this congregation completed its first sanctuary in 1873 and became the only Baptist church in the county with a full-time pastor holding services every Sunday. It went on to build successive homes over the following decades while sponsoring numerous other congregations across the region. As a founding Baptist body on the Parker County frontier, it helped seed the denomination throughout the area.
James Robertson Couts
Weatherford, TX
A Tennessee native and Civil War veteran, James Robertson Couts brought his family to Parker County in the mid-1860s and, with the proceeds of a cattle drive to California, opened a bank in Weatherford that endures today. An influential civic figure, he left an endowment to Weatherford College in his will and now rests beside his first wife, Martha. His life bridged the cattle-trailing frontier and the settled world of banking and philanthropy.
Weatherford College Old Main Building
Weatherford, TX
This wing began in 1869 as the Weatherford Masonic Institute — and the frontier's dangers were literal that day, as the Masons traveling to lay its cornerstone were delayed by a skirmish with Indians. The building has always housed a school, and in 1895 it was folded into the main structure of Weatherford College. Generations of Texans have been educated within its walls.
J. J. Hamilton Log Cabin
Weatherford, TX
J.J. Hamilton settled in this part of North Texas by affidavit in 1855 and helped petition for the creation of Parker County. By 1858 he had built a two-room log cabin with a dogtrot between fireplaces, and he served as a founding member and later minister of the local Christian Church. The family's story turned tragic in 1863 when his two sons were killed by Native Americans at Patrick's Creek, and in their grief the Hamiltons left the county.