First Christian Church
Sulphur Springs, Hopkins County, Texas
Marker Inscription
(Disciples of Christ) In the 1850s, Disciples in the pioneer town of Bright Star, also known as "The Sulphur Springs," gathered for religious meetings at neighbors' homes and in a vacant store. Two evangelists, the Rev. Charles Carlton and the Rev. J. M. Baird, organized this congregation in 1870. Joseph Hooten, a church elder, acted as interim pastor until the arrival of the first full-time minister, the Rev. Lawrence W. Scott, who served 1871-79. Shortly afterward, this fellowship purchased, in partnership with the First Baptist Church, one-half interest in a white frame sanctuary being vacated by the Methodists. The congregations worshiped on alternate Sundays.The Disciples sold their share to the Baptists in 1884 and constructed a separate church to accommodate the growing membership. This was a clapboard building in the Gothic style with a steep roof, tall arched windows, and a central bell tower and spire. Under the leadership of the Rev. D. Cephas Shelburne, a larger white brick sanctuary was completed in 1914. Classrooms were later annexed and a two-story house on a lot adjoining the church property was purchased for an education building. In 1962 a new sanctuary replaced the old church structure.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In the 1850s, Disciples of Christ in the pioneer town of Bright Star — better known as Sulphur Springs — worshipped in neighbors' homes and a vacant store before traveling evangelists formally organized this congregation in 1870. In a mark of frontier practicality, the young fellowship once shared a former Methodist sanctuary with the Baptists, the two flocks worshipping on alternate Sundays. As the town grew, so did the church, raising a Gothic frame building, then a brick sanctuary in 1914, and a modern one in 1962.
Why it matters
It traces a frontier congregation from borrowed rooms and shared pews to a settled town church, mirroring how faith communities took root as pioneer Texas towns matured.
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Related people
- · Charles Carlton
- · J. M. Baird
- · D. Cephas Shelburne
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
First United Methodist Church of Sulphur Springs
Sulphur Springs, TX
Founded in 1850 by the Rev. Pleas B. Bailey, this Methodist congregation raised the first church building in Sulphur Springs around 1852, on a lot ringed by the mineral springs that gave the town its name. In its early decades it shared space with Baptists, hosted the 1867 gathering that organized what became the North Texas Conference, and supported Central College, a Methodist school that operated locally in the late 19th century. The present sanctuary, the congregation's fifth building, rose in 1917.
Hopkins County Courthouse
Sulphur Springs, TX
After fire destroyed Hopkins County's third courthouse in 1894, taking the jail and neighboring buildings with it, the county rebuilt in bold fashion. It hired James Riely Gordon, the San Antonio architect whose muscular Richardsonian Romanesque designs came to define the Texas county seat, and set the new red-granite building on a corner facing the square rather than in its center — an unusual choice among Texas courthouses. Completed in 1895 for $75,000, it rose with rounded corner porches and heavy stonework, though thrifty commissioners refused to fund the clock some citizens wanted for its tower.
First Presbyterian Church of Sulphur Springs
Sulphur Springs, TX
Organized in 1852 with just eight members and elder Samuel Davidson, this Presbyterian congregation first shared a Connally Street sanctuary with the Cumberland Presbyterians until it burned in 1873. The members built anew on this site in 1882, called their first resident pastor in 1886, and organized a Ladies Missionary Society in 1890. The present sanctuary dates to 1920, with an education wing added in 1981.
St. Philip's Episcopal Church
Sulphur Springs, TX
Episcopal missionaries were preaching in Sulphur Springs as early as the 1860s, and St. Philip's was formally organized in 1872 after a visit from Bishop Alexander Gregg. For more than twenty years the small congregation borrowed the Presbyterian church for its services, until C. M. Houston and his wife Nancy donated land in 1887 and the present church was built around 1895.