First Christian Church of Fort Worth
Fort Worth, Tarrant County, Texas
Marker Inscription
City's pioneer congregation. Organized by the Rev. A.M. Dean, who with hymn book and revolver came in 1855 to the riotous six-year-old hamlet on the Trinity. He held services (at present Belknap and Houston streets) in a log house built for post surgeon, 2nd Dragoons, U.S. Army, stationed at fort that gave the city its name. Charter members were: Mr. and Mrs. James K. Allen, Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin P. Ayres, Mrs. Francis M. Durrett, Mrs. Alfred D. Johnson, Mrs. Florence Peak, Mr. and Mrs. William A. Sanderson, and Stephen Terry. First regular meeting place, a one-story concrete house at present Belknap and Lamar, was used on weekdays by Col. John Peter Smith (member of congregation) for sessions of the first public school established in Fort Worth. Rev. Mr. Dean, a frontier farmer, was followed as pastor by Dr. B.F. Hall, a dentist, and by Dr. Mansell Mathews, physician and judge of Red River County, and head of a large family grazing cattle in this area. Confederate General R.M Gano of Grapevine after the Civil War preached regularly at this church. In later 1860s came the Rev. Joseph Clark and sons Addison and Randolph, who in 1873 founded Add-Ran College, forerunner of Texas Christian University. First Christian is the oldest church in Fort Worth. (1970)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
First Christian Church was organized in 1855 by the Rev. A. M. Dean, a frontier farmer-preacher who, legend has it, came to the rowdy young settlement on the Trinity carrying both a hymn book and a revolver. Early services were held in a log house and a concrete building that also hosted Fort Worth's first public school, run by Col. John Peter Smith. Later ministers included the Rev. Joseph Clark, whose sons founded Add-Ran College in 1873—the forerunner of Texas Christian University—making this the oldest church in Fort Worth.
Why it matters
As Fort Worth's pioneer congregation and the seedbed of Texas Christian University, the church stands at the crossroads of frontier faith, education, and the city's founding.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
Fort Worth began as an army post. In 1849 the U.S. Army set up a small fort above the Trinity River as part of a line of frontier outposts meant to protect new settlements in north Texas. It was named for General William Jenkins Worth, a Mexican War officer, and dragoons, the army's mounted soldiers, served there.
The soldiers moved on in the early 1850s as the frontier shifted west. Settlers took over the abandoned buildings, and a small civilian town grew up on the bluff. By 1855 it was, in the marker's words, a riotous hamlet: rough, small and still finding its footing.
It was the kind of place that tested a preacher. Organized religion, schools and civic life had to be built from almost nothing, often in borrowed buildings and by a few determined families.
The church that formed here belonged to the Stone-Campbell movement, a family of American churches that grew out of early-nineteenth-century calls to return to simple New Testament Christianity. Its congregations, including the Disciples of Christ and Christian Churches, spread widely across the South and West, and Texas became one of their strongholds.
People & events
The story begins with the Rev. A. M. Dean, a frontier farmer and preacher who, according to the marker, arrived in 1855 with a hymn book and a revolver. Whether or not the line is literally true, it captures the setting. Dean held services in a log house first built for the post surgeon of the 2nd Dragoons, using a building left behind by the army that gave the town its name.
The congregation's charter members included the Allens, the Ayreses and the Sandersons, along with Mrs. Francis M. Durrett, Mrs. Alfred D. Johnson, Mrs. Florence Peak and Stephen Terry. Its first regular meeting place was a one-story concrete house that served another purpose during the week. Col. John Peter Smith, a member, taught Fort Worth's first public school there. Church and school shared the same room, so the town's first congregation and first classroom grew up together.
Later pastors reflected the many-sided life of frontier leaders. Dr. B. F. Hall was a dentist. Dr. Mansell Mathews was a physician, a judge in Red River County and the head of a large cattle-grazing family. After the Civil War, former Confederate General R. M. Gano of Grapevine preached here regularly.
Then, in the late 1860s, came the Rev. Joseph Clark and his sons Addison and Randolph. In 1873 the brothers founded Add-Ran College, a name built from their two first names. Their school was the forerunner of Texas Christian University, which eventually made its permanent home in Fort Worth.
Its place in the American story
This congregation sits where several big American stories meet. It shows how army posts on the western frontier often became the seeds of cities. Fort Worth went from a dragoon outpost to a rough settlement and then to a major city, and this church was there from the earliest civilian years.
It also shows how closely religion and education were tied on the frontier. Many American colleges were started by churches, and many early public schools met in church buildings or alongside them. Here a frontier congregation shared space with a city's first public school and helped produce the founders of a university.
The church is a landmark in the history of the Stone-Campbell movement, one of the largest homegrown religious movements in the United States. Its leaders, preachers who were also farmers, doctors, judges and veterans, show how frontier churches drew on everyone in the community.
More than a century after its founding, the marker could still call it the oldest church in Fort Worth, a continuous thread back to the town's first years.
If you visit
First Christian Church is in downtown Fort Worth, near the old heart of the city above the Trinity River, where the army post and the first settlement stood. Standing here, you are close to where Fort Worth began.
The marker mentions early sites near Belknap, Houston and Lamar streets. As you walk downtown, notice how these street names still map the city's oldest blocks. It takes some imagination to replace the skyline with log houses, a frontier bluff and a few hundred restless settlers.
The church pairs naturally with other early-Fort Worth sites downtown, and with a visit to the Texas Christian University campus to see what grew from the Clark brothers' school. Together they trace a line from a frontier preacher with a hymn book and a revolver to a modern university.
If the church is open or hosting services, be respectful of the active congregation. Otherwise the marker and the exterior make a good stop on a walking tour of Fort Worth's founding story.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Rev. A. M. Dean
- · Joseph Clark
- · Addison Clark
- · Randolph Clark
- · Col. John Peter Smith
- · Gen. R. M. Gano
Related events
- · Founding of Add-Ran College (Texas Christian University)
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Site of the First Masonic Hall in Fort Worth
Fort Worth, TX
Fort Worth's Masons organized in 1854 and by 1857 had built a two-story brick hall on land donated at the edge of the young settlement. The lodge room sat above a ground-floor school, while the first floor also hosted public meetings and church services — a civic anchor in a town still finding its shape. A bell added in 1871 announced stagecoach arrivals, fires, and the start of the school day until the growing lodge moved to larger quarters in 1878.
First Presbyterian Church of Fort Worth
Fort Worth, TX
Organized in 1873 with ten charter members as a Southern Presbyterian congregation, this Fort Worth church built a frame sanctuary downtown, took its present name in 1886, and raised a stone building in 1890. In 1916 it joined with a formerly Cumberland Presbyterian congregation to form Texas's first such federation — two churches sharing a pastor while keeping separate national ties — a division healed nationally only when the denominations reunited in 1983.
Atelier Building
Fort Worth, TX
Developer Thomas S. Weaver raised this brick building around 1905 and named it "Atelier," French for an artist's studio. Over the decades it housed architects and contractors, a restaurant, and financial firms, including the banking house of noted Fort Worth benefactor W. R. Edrington. In 1936 it briefly served as the temporary home of the Carnegie Library.
Fort Worth Library
Fort Worth, TX
At the turn of the 20th century, cities across America won free public libraries by tapping the fortune of steel magnate Andrew Carnegie, who gave away tens of millions to build them. When a Fort Worth woman asked him for "the price of a good cigar," he answered with $50,000, and paired with local gifts of money and land, the city's first library opened on this site in 1901. Its first librarian was also a leader in the parks and art movements of the era, reflecting how libraries anchored civic and cultural life.