First Christian Church
Palestine, Anderson County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Organized in 1847 under leadership of lawyer Joseph A. Clark (founder and administrator of college now T.C.U.) and John F. Taylor, a farmer. Both Clark and Taylor were followers of Campbell - Scott movement for Christian unity. Though 16 charter members were of different faiths, they successfully united through "Articles of Faith" which expressed their basic beliefs. From its very beginning, the church has been of evangelistic nature. A Rev. Mr. Jordan (relinquishing affiliation with the Baptist church) became the first pastor, ministering not only to the newly-formed congregation but to other settlements near and far. In the early 1850s, Rev. Carroll Kendrick became pastor. He too believed in the need for evangelism and pressed Joseph Clark to work with him. Clark set forth strengthening congregations already formed, establishing new churches and expounding the gospel. Interrupted only by the Civil War, evangelistic work by the church continues to this day. The first church building, erected in 1859, was located on Poplar and Fannin streets; the second on Houston and Crawford in 1884; the third, built in 1905, is now used for an educational building. The present church was constructed in 1955.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Organized in 1847, this East Texas congregation was led in part by lawyer Joseph A. Clark — later the founder of the college that became Texas Christian University — and farmer John F. Taylor, both followers of the Campbell-Scott movement for Christian unity. Sixteen charter members of differing faiths bound themselves together with shared "Articles of Faith," and the church committed itself to evangelism from the start, planting congregations across the region even as the Civil War briefly interrupted the work. Four sanctuaries later, it was still serving Palestine by 1955.
Why it matters
The Restoration Movement shaped American Protestantism in the 19th century, and this congregation's tie to the founder of TCU links a frontier church to the rise of higher education in Texas.
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Related people
- · Joseph A. Clark
- · John F. Taylor
- · Carroll Kendrick
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Palestine Carnegie Library
Palestine, TX
Palestine's public library grew from an 1853 effort by Judge John Graham Gooch, who lent his own books to start a circulating collection. The original city library was replaced in 1914 by this building, erected with help from the Carnegie Foundation. It was named a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark in 1970.
Col. Homer Garrison, Jr.
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Born in Anderson County in 1901, Homer Garrison, Jr. took his first lawman's job at nineteen as a deputy sheriff, against his father's advice. He was among the first thirty Texas Highway Patrol troopers in 1930 and, when the Department of Public Safety was created in 1935 by merging the patrol with the Texas Rangers, rose to become its director and chief of the Rangers in 1938. Over thirty years he built the agency to more than 3,400 employees and pioneered training, licensing, and safety programs.
Palestine Lodge No. 31, A. F. & A. M.
Palestine, TX
Chartered in the late 1840s, just as Texas joined the Union, this Masonic lodge became one of the oldest institutions in Anderson County. Its members poured energy into education, building a school for boys and later a brick schoolhouse for girls in the 1850s. Among its prominent members was John H. Reagan, a U.S. congressman and Texas's first Railroad Commissioner.
Purvey Lee (P.L.) Chism
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Born in Alabama in 1893, Purvey Lee Chism served with the 127th Field Artillery in England and France during World War I before devoting his life to education. He taught and led rural schools in Lamar County, earned a master's degree from Texas A&M, and in 1940 moved to Palestine as a deputy state superintendent overseeing a growing cluster of counties. As Anderson County's school supervisor until 1963, he visited classrooms daily, shaping curriculum and mentoring teachers and students alike.