First Disciples of Christ in Texas
Texarkana, Bowie County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Worshiped in 1831 at McKinney's Landing, where the McKinney family and a small group of neighbors met together for informal services. During the winter of 1841-1842, a traveling preacher from Illinois, G. Gates, organized the congregation into a church. He later wrote, "I remained with the brethren about a week... gathered scattered sheep and constituted a church of 16 members, with fair prospects for more." First leader of the group was Collin McKinney (1766-1861), who had come with his family from Kentucky to Texas in 1831, when Mexico governed the state. The worship services he started were in defiance of the laws of Mexico, which demanded the allegiance of each citizen to the Catholic religion. In 1836, he signed the Texas Declaration of Independence. Collin County and the city of McKinney bear his name. Between 1844 and 1846, the McKinney families and neighbors moved their congregation to Mantua, near Van Alstyne, where they met in a wooden church with a four-foot wall separating men from women. Five slaves of the family were members of the Mantua group. When the railroad built past Van Alstyne, they moved there and organized the First Christian Church, a direct descendant of the 1831 congregation. (1967)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In 1831, when Mexico governed Texas and demanded Catholic allegiance, the McKinney family and neighbors gathered for informal Protestant worship at McKinney's Landing in defiance of the law. A traveling preacher formally constituted the church in the winter of 1841–42 under Collin McKinney—a signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence for whom Collin County and the city of McKinney are named. Five enslaved members of the family belonged to the congregation, which followed the railroad to Van Alstyne and became the First Christian Church, a direct descendant of that 1831 gathering.
Why it matters
This congregation traces the arrival of Anglo-American settlers and their faith into Mexican Texas, binding the roots of a denomination to the very people who helped found the Republic.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Collin McKinney
- · G. Gates
Related events
- · Texas Declaration of Independence
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Old Liberty Cemetery and Site of Enon Primitive Baptist Church
Queen City, TX
The Enon Primitive Baptist Church was organized near Old Havana in 1845 and, like many frontier congregations, met in homes, schools, and brush arbors before Anderson Miles deeded four acres here in 1861. The wood-frame church stood beside a cemetery of roughly 200 marked graves and as many unmarked, many shown only by piles of rocks. Oral tradition holds that the northwest corner was set aside for enslaved people, and church records confirm at least two Black members during the Civil War.
Pine Crest Cemetery
Atlanta, TX
On the highest ground in Atlanta, Texas, this cemetery was formally deeded to the city by Preston Rose Scott in 1887, though its earliest marked grave dates to 1878. A section once separated by a fence — now removed — held African American burials, the oldest that of R.A. Williams, who died in 1880. Later gifts of land let the graveyard grow into the place where descendants of the town's founders still honor their veterans and kin.
Floyds' Hill Church - Cemetery
Linden, TX
In 1854 Killis S. Floyd donated four acres for a Missionary Baptist congregation, and the Floyds' Hill Church was organized that December with fifteen charter members. Services first met in a pioneer family's home, then in a log church of 1855 and a frame building raised about 1858 with the help of enslaved labor; Black members worshiped here until Floyd gave land for a separate church. The adjoining cemetery, with some 200 known graves, holds the settlers who came from Alabama and Georgia in the 1850s, and though regular services ended in 1926, descendants still gather each year.
English Cemetery
English, TX
In 1852 Oliver English and his uncle Simeon brought several families and thirty enslaved people from Missouri to open a large plantation, and Oliver built a home and store at the center of the community that took his name. The English Store became a regional trading hub and one of the county's oldest businesses before burning in 1983. The cemetery here, also called Williams Chapel Cemetery, holds generations of residents, including veterans from the Civil War through the Vietnam War.