Church of St. John Baptist
Clarendon, Donley County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Oldest church continuously in use (in earliest Episcopal parish) in the Texas Panhandle. The first services were held by the Rev. Mr. Townsend of Dallas Diocese in the J. B. McClelland Ranch house, Nov. 1877. On site given 1891 by Isaac W. Carhart, building was erected in 1893. A donor, Mrs. Elizabeth Goff of Philadelphia, chose the name. The church was consecrated April 24, 1893, by Bishop A. C. Garrett. First Vicar: the Rev. W. D. Sartwell, 1890-93. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark-1971
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
The oldest continuously used church in the Texas Panhandle's earliest Episcopal parish began with services held in a ranch house in 1877. On land given in 1891 by Isaac W. Carhart, the congregation built its church in 1893, naming it at the request of a Philadelphia donor, Elizabeth Goff. Bishop A. C. Garrett consecrated it that April, and it was recorded as a Texas Historic Landmark in 1971.
Why it matters
A frontier church that has held services for well over a century shows how faith communities took root on the newly opened plains, binding scattered ranchers into a settled society.
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Related people
- · Isaac W. Carhart
- · Elizabeth Goff
- · A. C. Garrett
- · W. D. Sartwell
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Donley County Courthouse
Clarendon, TX
Designed by Bulger and Rapp and built by the Troutman Brothers of Trinidad, Colorado, the Donley County Courthouse opened in November 1891 as a striking Romanesque Revival landmark of towers, red brick, and limestone. Remodeling in the 1930s stripped away the entire third floor and much of its ornament, but a careful restoration returned it to its original grandeur, rededicated on July 4, 2003. It is now the oldest functioning courthouse in the Texas Panhandle.
First United Methodist Church of Clarendon
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Methodist minister Lewis H. Carhart founded Clarendon in 1878 as a sober religious and educational colony on the Panhandle plains—cowboys mockingly dubbed the saloonless town "Saint's Roost." When the railroad arrived in 1887 the town moved to its present site, where circuit riders and then the Rev. Isaac L. Mills organized the Methodist Episcopal Church, South in 1888. As Clarendon College drew new members, the congregation built its large Classical Revival sanctuary in 1910.
S. W. Lowe House
Clarendon, TX
Built in 1904 by local merchants, this Panhandle house passed through the hands of ranchers and cattlemen before Sam W. Lowe—a college educator, merchant, stock farmer, and three-term county judge—bought it in 1926. His widow Lilac lived there until 1981, more than fifty years after they moved in.
The Clarendon News
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Clarendon began as the Rev. Lewis H. Carhart's dream of a colony grounded in Christianity, temperance, and education, and to promote it he launched The Clarendon News in June 1878—the very year the first colonists arrived. It was the first newspaper in the Texas Panhandle. Through many changes of name and owner, and from hand-set type to modern computers, it has never stopped chronicling its community.