Central Christian Church
Sherman, Grayson County, Texas
Marker Inscription
This congregation traces its beginnings to the late 1850s, when pioneer minister Benjamin Franklin Hall came to this area to preach and organize a church. Early meeting places included a brush arbor and a Union meeting house at the local Masonic Hall. A sanctuary was built in 1875 on the corner of Montgomery and Houston streets. A site on the corner of Travis and Cherry streets was acquired in 1895, and a new church structure was erected in 1905. A part of Grayson County history, this church has served the people of Sherman for over 130 years.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
This Sherman congregation dates to the late 1850s, when pioneer minister Benjamin Franklin Hall arrived to preach and organize a church, gathering worshippers in a brush arbor and a Masonic-hall meeting house. A first sanctuary rose in 1875, and after acquiring a new site in 1895 the congregation built a larger church in 1905. It has served the people of Sherman for well over a century.
Why it matters
The church traces the long institutional continuity that helped anchor Grayson County life from the antebellum frontier through the modern era.
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Related people
- · Benjamin Franklin Hall
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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Grayson County grew from Holland Coffee's 1837 trading post at the Red River's Preston Bend into a hub of the Peters' Colony and, in 1846, a county named for Republic of Texas attorney general Peter W. Grayson. Its seat, Sherman, moved to its present site in 1848 and earned fame for so many courthouses and fine 19th-century schools that it was called the "Athens of Texas." The Butterfield Trail, cattle drives, and early railroads all crossed the county, and Lake Texoma later made it a tourist draw.