First Christian Church of Aubrey
Aubrey, Denton County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Early Disciples of Christ in this area met as part of a union church in the Spring Hill community, where several denominations held services under a brush arbor and in a local schoolhouse. In October 1894, the Disciples established this Christian church in Aubrey under the leadership of elders R. C. Horn and E. B. Holmes. A frame sanctuary here served the church until a tornado destroyed it in 1918. Members soon rebuilt and continued their support of missions and benevolences in the process. An early commitment to area Bible schools meant dramatic growth for the young church and set the course for its history of worship, service and outreach. (2005)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
The Disciples of Christ in this area first worshipped alongside other denominations under a brush arbor and in a schoolhouse in the Spring Hill community before establishing their own Christian church in Aubrey in October 1894. A frame sanctuary served the congregation until a tornado leveled it in 1918, after which members quickly rebuilt while sustaining their missions and charitable work. An early emphasis on Bible schools fueled rapid growth and set the congregation's long course of worship and outreach.
Why it matters
The church reflects the frontier-era Restoration Movement that spread the Disciples of Christ across small-town Texas and the American heartland.
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Related people
- · R. C. Horn
- · E. B. Holmes
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Aubrey First United Methodist Church
Aubrey, TX
In 1858 Dr. George T. Key moved his family from Missouri to Denton County and built log cabins near present-day Aubrey, one of which served as both school and church — the Key School House that cradled one of the county's first Methodist congregations. After years of meeting in the schoolhouse and members' homes, the church accepted a free town lot in 1885 and completed a frame building in 1886. A 1918 tornado leveled that structure, but the congregation rebuilt in brick by 1919, adorning it with Pre-Raphaelite-style stained glass, and continues to serve Aubrey today.
First Baptist Church of Denton
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Twelve men and women gathered in Denton County's log-cabin courthouse in 1858 to organize what they called the Union Baptist Church, meeting for years in borrowed Masonic and Presbyterian halls. Renamed First Baptist Church of Denton by about 1880, the congregation raised a succession of buildings—a white frame structure, a larger hall lost to fire in 1917, and a columned brick church in 1918—as its membership grew with the town. Across generations it became woven into Denton's civic and religious life.
Chinn's Chapel Methodist Church
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Bethel Community
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