First Presbyterian Church of Elgin
Elgin, Bastrop County, Texas
Marker Inscription
The town of Elgin was founded in 1872 along the route of the Houston & Texas Central Railroad. By 1881 a Cumberland Presbyterian church was organized by the Rev. A. J. Adkisson and 10 charter members. The congregation met in local churches and the schoolhouse until 1886 when they purchased property and built a frame church and manse. The first full-time pastor, the Rev. S. A. Comer, was called in 1908, and in 1909 a red brick and wood church building was erected. The church celebrated its 100th anniversary in 1981 and remains an integral part of the community. (1997)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Elgin was founded in 1872 along the Houston & Texas Central Railroad, and within a decade the Rev. A.J. Adkisson and ten charter members had organized a Cumberland Presbyterian church there. Meeting in borrowed churches and the schoolhouse until they built a frame church and manse in 1886, the congregation called its first full-time pastor in 1908 and raised a red-brick sanctuary the next year. The church marked its centennial in 1981.
Why it matters
The congregation's growth alongside a new railroad town illustrates how the rail lines dictated where Texas communities—and the churches that bound them—took root.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Rev. A.J. Adkisson
- · Rev. S.A. Comer
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Elgin Methodist Church
Elgin, TX
When this congregation organized in 1874, Elgin was a young railroad town on the central Texas prairie, and these Methodists were the first to gather a church there. A modest frame sanctuary of 1882 gave way in 1906 to the Gothic Revival building that still stands, its stairstep gable corbelling, corner pinnacles, and memorial art-glass windows the work of local contractor J. C. Miller. It is a fine example of how growing Texas towns expressed both faith and permanence in brick and colored glass.
Elgin Christian Church
Elgin, TX
Organized in 1888 with the help of the Rev. B. B. Sanders, this Christian (Disciples of Christ) congregation drew its early membership from Elgin and the farming communities around it, worshipping in the local Presbyterian church until it raised its own sanctuary in 1892. The building and its replacement were both leveled by the devastating Gulf storms of 1900 and 1915, yet the congregation rebuilt each time, erecting a lasting home in 1916 and a modern one in 1965. More than a century of worship in a Central Texas railroad town is written into that cycle of loss and renewal.
William B. Standifer
Elgin, TX
Illinois-born William B. Standifer fought at San Jacinto in 1836 as a member of Capt. Jesse Billingsley's company, one of the units in Sam Houston's decisive army. His marker records a life (1819–1876) spent in the young Texas he had helped bring into being.
Lund
Elgin, TX
First called Pleasant Hill, this Travis County community was settled by Swedish immigrants in the late 1880s and later renamed Lund after a city in southern Sweden. Under the Rev. J.A. Stamline, its Swedish Evangelical Bethlehem Lutheran Church was founded in 1897, anchoring a settlement of farms, cotton gins, a general store, a blacksmith, a post office, and a school. A tornado destroyed the church in 1980, and a new one was dedicated the following year.