Covenant United Presbyterian Church
Kaufman, Kaufman County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Organized July 1854 by The Rev. Richard O. Watkins, as Cumberland Presbyterian Church. First church building was erected in 1854-55. First pastor, The Rev. Dempsey W. Broughton, helped found Trinity University. Present sanctuary was built in 1877. Church took name "First Presbyterian" after national denominational merger in 1906. It became "Covenant" after absorbing Gastonia (1912) and Jiba (1963) congregations. Incise on back: Marker in memory of our parents, Martha Jane and Jim Duncan, by Bertha Duncan Lane and Herman H. Duncan Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1971
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Organized in July 1854 by the Reverend Richard O. Watkins as a Cumberland Presbyterian congregation, this Kaufman church raised its first building the following year, and its first pastor helped found Trinity University. The present sanctuary dates to 1877, and the congregation's name changed with the times — becoming "First Presbyterian" after an 1906 denominational merger and later "Covenant" as it absorbed neighboring congregations. Its long history is written into the town's religious life.
Why it matters
Covenant's story reflects the frontier roots of Presbyterianism in Texas, including its early hand in founding one of the state's enduring church-affiliated universities.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Richard O. Watkins
- · Dempsey W. Broughton
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
First Christian Church of Kaufman
Kaufman, TX
Organized in 1861 under the guidance of R. A. Hindman — who also founded Kaufman's first newspaper — this Disciples of Christ congregation worshipped in members' homes before buying its first sanctuary from the local Presbyterians in 1877. Over the next century the church weathered a destructive 1961 fire and, resourcefully, moved surplus military barracks up from Dallas's Love Field to build a new home. The story mirrors the improvised, make-do spirit of small-town Texas congregations across generations.
Huff-Park House
Kaufman, TX
This Kaufman home was built in 1889 by W.L. Huff and bought in 1892 by Dr. J.W. Park, a Texas-born physician. Because doctors were scarce, Park was licensed in 1877 and practiced for two years in Egypt, Texas, before returning to earn his degree at Louisville Medical College in 1880. Settling in Kaufman, he practiced until the day before his death in 1941, raising six children across two marriages.
Kaufman Lodge No. 726, A.F. & A.M.
Scurry, TX
The first Masonic lodge in Kaufman County sat in the town of Kaufman, but in the 1880s impassable rain-soaked roads pushed sixteen members to seek a charter closer to home in the young town of Scurry. Kaufman Lodge No. 726, A.F. & A.M., was chartered in December 1891 and became a hub of community life, weathering fires and lean times as it moved from building to building. In keeping with Masonic tradition, its members raised funds for neighbors in need and supplied leaders for Scurry through good years and bad.
Mount Olive Missionary Baptist Church
Scurry, TX
Organized in 1860 on the eve of the Civil War, Mount Olive is among the oldest active churches in Kaufman County. It began in a one-room log cabin at Mt. Olive Cemetery that doubled as a schoolhouse, with Rev. E. S. Colthorp as its first pastor. As the railroad town of Scurry grew, the congregation relocated here in 1896, sharing early buildings with other denominations and a school before raising its own sanctuaries in 1918 and again in 1968.