First Christian Church of Big Spring
Big Spring, Howard County, Texas
Marker Inscription
In 1882, the same year Howard County was formally organized, this congregation was established with seven charter members. Worship services were first conducted in the home of Mr. and Mrs. I. D. Eddins. The first pastor was The Rev. J. Wright. Members constructed a small frame sanctuary at 305 Gregg, but as the congregation grew, new facilities were built on Scurry Street and later at this site. For over a century, under the direction of several prominent Disciples of Christ leaders, the First Christian Church has been a vital force in Big Spring. Texas Sesquicentennial 1836-1986.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In 1882, the very year Howard County was organized, seven charter members founded this Disciples of Christ congregation, first gathering in the home of Mr. and Mrs. I. D. Eddins under the Rev. J. Wright. As Big Spring grew from a raw West Texas railroad town into an established community, the church built and rebuilt its sanctuaries, from a small frame building on Gregg Street to later homes on Scurry and this site. For more than a century it remained a steady spiritual anchor for the town.
Why it matters
The congregation's founding alongside the county itself shows how churches helped knit together the institutions and social life of newly settled West Texas.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
In 1882, West Texas was still very much a frontier. The vast, dry country around present-day Big Spring had long been open range, and settlement was arriving quickly now that the railroads were pushing across the state, turning watering stops and rough camps into permanent towns almost overnight.
That same year, Howard County was formally organized — the moment a stretch of open country becomes an official community with a government, records, and a name on the map. It is hard to overstate what a hopeful, unsettled time this was: a place inventing itself, drawing in families who were betting their futures on a town that barely existed yet.
Into that raw new community came the institutions that turn a settlement into a society. Among the first and most important were the churches. In a place with few established gathering places, a congregation offered not only worship but structure, fellowship, and a sense that the community was here to stay.
People & events
This congregation's story begins in the same year the county did — 1882 — with just seven charter members. That is a small, brave beginning: a handful of people committing to build a church in a town still finding its feet.
They had no sanctuary at first, so they did what frontier congregations everywhere did: they gathered in a home. Worship services were first held in the house of Mr. and Mrs. I. D. Eddins, with the Rev. J. Wright serving as the first pastor. A parlor became a place of worship until the community could build something more.
As the congregation grew, so did its buildings. Members first constructed a small frame sanctuary at 305 Gregg. When they outgrew it, they built anew on Scurry Street, and later moved again to the present site — each move a visible marker of the town's own growth around them.
Throughout that long climb, the church was guided by leaders in the Disciples of Christ tradition, and for more than a century it remained a vital force in Big Spring. The commemorative marker, dedicated during the Texas Sesquicentennial marking 150 years since 1836, honors that century-plus of steady presence.
Its place in the American story
The founding of this church in the very year its county was organized captures something essential about how the American West was settled. Towns did not become communities through commerce and government alone; churches, schools, and other institutions arrived alongside them and helped hold the new society together.
The congregation belongs to the Disciples of Christ, part of a religious tradition born on the American frontier in the early nineteenth century that emphasized a simple, unifying Christianity. That movement spread west with the settlers themselves, and a small West Texas railroad town gaining such a congregation in 1882 is a local chapter of that much larger American religious story.
There is also a broader lesson in the church's long survival. From a home parlor and seven members to a sequence of ever-larger sanctuaries, its growth traces the maturing of Big Spring from a raw frontier stop into an established town — a reminder that the durability of a community is often measured in the durability of the institutions its earliest residents founded.
If you visit
Visiting this site is a chance to connect a single building's history to the birth of an entire town. As you stand here, remember that everything around you grew up in roughly the same era — the church, the county, and the community all took root together.
Think about the sequence of homes this congregation has kept: a parlor in the Eddins house, a small frame building on Gregg Street, a sanctuary on Scurry, and finally this location. That trail of addresses is a map of the town's expansion, and it is worth picturing each step as you visit.
Big Spring itself makes an interesting stop on a West Texas drive, sitting in wide, open country that still carries the feel of the frontier this church was founded on. The commemorative marker ties the congregation to the Texas Sesquicentennial, so you are standing at a spot that a whole community chose to honor as part of its heritage.
Come with an eye for how a town builds itself from the ground up — and let this church stand in your mind for the seven hopeful people who started it in the same year their county appeared on the map.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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