First Christian Church of Kaufman
Kaufman, Kaufman County, Texas
Marker Inscription
R. A. Hindman, who started the first newspaper in Kaufman, moved to the area in 1861. With his direction, this congregation was organized the same year. Services were conducted in homes until 1877 when members bought a sanctuary at the corner of Shannon and Houston streets from the Presbyterian church. A two-story residence at 504 S. Houston, acquired in 1956, served as an educational building until fire destroyed it in 1961. Later that year the church began worshiping at this location in remodeled barracks moved from Love Field in Dallas.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
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.
Why it matters
It shows how frontier faith communities took root before the Civil War and adapted through fire and postwar change to stay at the center of small-town life.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
This congregation was organized in 1861, the year the Civil War began. Texas voted to secede that spring, and communities across the state were about to see their young men march off to war. Kaufman County, east of Dallas, was still a farming frontier with small towns just getting established.
In places like this, organized religion often began in living rooms. Congregations formed long before they could afford a building, gathering in members' homes and sometimes sharing space with other denominations. Churches named "Christian Church" in nineteenth-century Texas generally grew out of the Restoration Movement, an American religious movement that sought to return to a simple, New Testament model of faith and spread widely across the South and Midwest.
A century later, the world had changed completely. After World War II, the United States had huge supplies of surplus military buildings, and many communities put them to new use as schools, homes, and churches. This church's history stretches across both of those eras.
People & events
The congregation's story begins with R. A. Hindman, who moved to the Kaufman area in 1861. Hindman is remembered as the man who started Kaufman's first newspaper, and that same year, under his direction, this church was organized. It is a striking combination: the same person helping to found both a town's first newspaper and one of its congregations, two institutions that help knit a community together.
For its first years the congregation had no building of its own, so services were held in homes. In 1877, members bought a sanctuary at the corner of Shannon and Houston streets from the town's Presbyterian church. Buying a church building from another denomination was a practical, neighborly arrangement and shows how small-town congregations helped each other grow.
The twentieth century brought its own challenges. In 1956 the church acquired a two-story residence at 504 S. Houston for use as an educational building, but fire destroyed it in 1961. The congregation responded with remarkable resourcefulness. That same year it began worshiping at this location, in remodeled barracks that had been moved from Love Field in Dallas.
Its place in the American story
This church's story touches several major threads in American history. Its founding in 1861 places it among the many congregations planted on the edge of settlement in the years before and during the Civil War, a time when churches were among the first and most important institutions in new towns.
Its link to Love Field connects it to the military history of the twentieth century. Love Field served as a military aviation field during the world wars, and after World War II the federal government disposed of enormous numbers of surplus military buildings. Across the country, barracks were moved and remodeled into classrooms, homes, and sanctuaries. This congregation's new home is a small example of how wartime infrastructure was recycled into civilian community life.
Most of all, the story shows the persistence of local institutions. Through war, fire, and changing times, the congregation adapted, borrowed, bought, and rebuilt. That make-do determination is a large part of how small-town America sustained itself.
If you visit
Stop by the marker and look at the church with its history in mind. Knowing that the congregation's home grew from military barracks moved up from Dallas adds an unexpected layer to an everyday small-town scene.
Remember that this is an active place of worship, so be respectful of services and private activities. A quiet look from outside and a read of the marker are the right way to enjoy it.
Kaufman is an easy side trip from the Dallas area and makes a pleasant stop on a drive through the farm country east of the city. Take a stroll through the older parts of town and notice the street names from the marker, Shannon and Houston, to trace the congregation's journey across more than a century.
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
- · R. A. Hindman
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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.
Covenant United Presbyterian Church
Kaufman, TX
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.
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.