First Christian Church
Pecos, Reeves County, Texas
Marker Inscription
This congregation grew out of a community Sunday School begun by Mrs. Peyton Parker in the Parker Hotel in 1881. One participant, pharmacist B. P. Van Horn (1852-1932), arranged a revival in 1891 that resulted in formation of the First Christian Church, the first church to be organized in Pecos. Van Horn acted as lay leader since there was no minister. When he left in 1895, the church disbanded until Mrs. Ed Vickers (1870-1950) and Mrs. R. D. Gage started a Ladies Aid Society in 1898. The society planned another revival which reactivated the fellowship. In 1899 lawyer R. D. Gage donated land for construction of a small sanctuary. One new member who joined the congregation during this period was Dr. Jim Camp (1870-1964), who served Pecos as a physician for over 60 years. In 1905 the Rev. Homer Magee (1882-1921) became full-time pastor. That same year, the church building was moved to this site. Plans for the present structure were made in 1908, after a revival led by the Rev. J. L. Haddock. In 1909 contractor E. B. Kisser completed this edifice, the oldest brick church building in Pecos. Educational facilities were added during pastorates of the Rev. Dr. Oliver Harrison, 1936-41, and the Rev. Earl Bissex, 1952, Recent remodeling was completed in 1974, under the leadership of the Rev. Clark Ford. (1975)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Faith took root in the West Texas railroad town of Pecos through a Sunday school begun in a hotel in 1881, blossoming a decade later into the town's first organized church. Led at first by a pharmacist acting as lay leader and revived by two women's Ladies Aid Society after it briefly disbanded, the congregation raised its first sanctuary on donated land in 1899. The handsome brick edifice completed in 1909—the oldest brick church in Pecos—still anchors a community that grew alongside the railroad and the cattle trade.
Why it matters
The church's stop-and-start beginnings capture how frontier communities built lasting institutions through the persistence of a few settlers, often with women leading when clergy were scarce.
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Related people
- · B. P. Van Horn
- · Mrs. Peyton Parker
- · Homer Magee
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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Alamo Letter Statue
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This courthouse statue in Pecos honors the famous 'Alamo letter,' William Barret Travis's 1836 appeal from the besieged mission at San Antonio de Béxar, signed 'Victory or Death.' Written during the Texas Revolution as a small garrison faced the Mexican army, the letter became one of the most stirring documents in Texas history. Its placement before a West Texas courthouse reflects how deeply the Alamo's defiance entered the state's civic identity.
Reeves County
Pecos, TX
Carved out of Pecos County in 1883 and organized the following year, Reeves County took shape as railroads and settlers pushed into far West Texas. It was named for George Robertson Reeves, a Confederate colonel who also served in the Texas Legislature, and the town of Pecos became its seat. Markers like this, erected in 1936 for the Texas Centennial, fixed the young county's origins in public memory.
Orient Hotel
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Built of local red sandstone as a saloon in 1896 and opened as a hotel in 1907, the Orient billed itself as the finest lodging between Fort Worth and El Paso. In the booming years of Pecos Valley development it served as a headquarters for land promoters, traveling salesmen, and the families of arriving settlers. It survives today restored as the House West of the Pecos Museum.