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.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
In 1831 the land that would become Texas belonged to Mexico, and settlement there came with strings attached. Anglo-American families streaming in from the United States were expected, at least on paper, to become Mexican citizens and to profess the Catholic faith, the only religion the government officially recognized.
Many of these newcomers were Protestants from the Upper South, and their traditions did not fit easily into that requirement. On the frontier, far from official eyes, families often simply worshiped as they pleased.
This was also an era of great American religious ferment. Along the frontier, a homegrown movement was calling Christians back to what its leaders saw as the simple faith of the New Testament — the current from which the Disciples of Christ and their sister churches would flow.
People & events
It began quietly, in 1831, with the McKinney family and a few neighbors meeting for informal services at McKinney's Landing. There was no building and no settled preacher — just people gathering to worship, in technical defiance of Mexican law.
A decade later, in the winter of 1841–42, a traveling preacher from Illinois named G. Gates rode through and gave the group a formal shape. He later wrote of gathering "scattered sheep" and constituting a church of sixteen members, with fair prospects for more. Its first leader was Collin McKinney, who had brought his family from Kentucky to Texas in 1831, already an old man.
McKinney was no ordinary frontier elder. In 1836 he signed the Texas Declaration of Independence, and both Collin County and the city of McKinney carry his name. Between 1844 and 1846 the congregation moved to Mantua, near Van Alstyne, meeting in a wooden church with a four-foot wall dividing the men from the women; five people the family held in slavery were among its members. When the railroad later ran through Van Alstyne, the church moved again and reorganized as the First Christian Church.
Its place in the American story
This little congregation sits at the crossroads of two great American stories. One is political: the swell of Anglo-American settlers into Mexican Texas, the friction that followed, and the revolution that made Texas first a republic and then a state. That its founding elder signed the Texas Declaration of Independence binds the church directly to the nation's westward expansion.
The other story is religious. The frontier Restoration Movement was one of the few Christian traditions born on American soil, spread by exactly this kind of traveling preacher and lay-led gathering. To trace a congregation from an illegal 1831 house meeting to an organized church is to watch that movement take root at the very edge of the map.
And woven through both is the presence of five enslaved members — a reminder that the westward march of settlers and their faith carried slavery along with it, into the churches themselves.
If you visit
The marker at Texarkana honors a beginning rather than a single surviving building, so let the story do the traveling. Picture a small group meeting at a river landing in 1831, worshiping in a way the law forbade, with no idea that one of their number would help found a republic.
If your road trip carries you across North Texas, the names on the map become part of the tour — Collin County and the city of McKinney both point back to the elder who led this flock. Van Alstyne, where the congregation finally settled as the First Christian Church, closes the circle.
This is history for travelers who like the long thread: a faith and a family that arrived under one flag, helped raise another, and left their name across the countryside they helped settle.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
- · Collin McKinney
- · G. Gates
Related events
- · Texas Declaration of Independence
Themes & tags
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