Christ Episcopal Church of Temple
Temple, Bell County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Founded as a mission in 1889, this fellowship achieved parish status in 1902 and began raising money to erect this church building. After a public fund drive (1904), construction was started on the Gothic Revival edifice designed by A.O. Watson of Austin. The Rev. Thomas J. Sloan led the first service here Sept. 24, 1905. The debt was paid in 1913, during the pastorate of the Rev. Custis Fletcher, and the structure was consecrated by the Rt. Rev. George H. Kinsolving, Bishop of Texas. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1976
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Begun as a small mission in 1889, this Episcopal congregation reached parish status in 1902 and rallied the community through a public fund drive to build a proper church. The resulting Gothic Revival building, designed by Austin architect A.O. Watson, opened for its first service in 1905 and was consecrated in 1913 once its debt was cleared. It stands as a testament to a young railroad city's determination to plant permanent institutions.
Why it matters
Congregations like this anchored the civic and social life of fast-growing Texas railroad towns, giving new communities continuity and identity as they matured.
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Related people
- · Thomas J. Sloan
- · A.O. Watson
- · George H. Kinsolving
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
First Presbyterian Church of Temple
Temple, TX
When the railroad turned Temple into a booming young town in the early 1880s, its first congregation took root: on October 19, 1881, twenty-four members left the established church in nearby Belton to organize the First Presbyterian Church of Temple. They worshipped in two early buildings at North First and Barton before raising the present sanctuary beginning in 1929. The marker traces a spiritual community that arrived almost at the town's birth.
Bird Creek Battlefield
Temple, TX
On May 26, 1839, Captain John Bird and a company of just 34 Texas Rangers clashed here with a far larger force of some 240 Native fighters during the Republic of Texas era. Bird was killed in the fight, but his outnumbered command reportedly drove off their opponents. The engagement was one of many bloody frontier skirmishes as Anglo settlement pushed into Central Texas.
Bird Creek Indian Battle
Temple, TX
On May 26, 1839, a small Ranger force of 34 men under Captain John Bird clashed with a far larger body of Native warriors near this site during the Republic of Texas's violent frontier era. Bird and several of his men were killed in the fighting, an episode the State of Texas marked in 1936 to honor the fallen. The engagement was one of countless bloody encounters as the young republic pushed its settlement line into Comanche and allied territory.
Messer-Limmer Farmhouse
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Built in 1895 by the sons and grandsons of Mary Margaret Messer, this modest farmhouse is a plainspoken example of vernacular Texas building — a Cumberland-plan house with board-and-batten siding raised by family labor rather than a hired architect. Purchased in 1920 by landowner F. A. Limmer of the nearby community of Alligator, the home and its outbuildings survive as a rare intact picture of the working farm complexes that once dotted Bell County.