First Presbyterian Church of Temple
Temple, Bell County, Texas
Marker Inscription
The first church established in Temple, this congregation was organized on October 19, 1881, under the leadership of A.A. Black, with the assistance of the Rev. C.W. Peyton and the Rev. R.M. Tuttle. The 24 charter members had been dismissed from the Belton Presbyterian Church in order to found the Temple congregation. The first and second buildings for the church were located on the southwest corner of North First and Barton. Construction of the present facility, the third for the congregation, began in 1929, during the pastorate of the Rev. Michael Mar Yosip. (1982)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
When the railroad turned Temple into a booming young town in the early 1880s, its first congregation took root: on October 19, 1881, twenty-four members left the established church in nearby Belton to organize the First Presbyterian Church of Temple. They worshipped in two early buildings at North First and Barton before raising the present sanctuary beginning in 1929. The marker traces a spiritual community that arrived almost at the town's birth.
Why it matters
Churches were often the first civic institutions in new Texas railroad towns, giving frontier communities cohesion and identity even before the streets were fully settled.
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Related people
- · A.A. Black
- · Rev. C.W. Peyton
- · Rev. R.M. Tuttle
- · Rev. Michael Mar Yosip
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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Bird Creek Battlefield
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On May 26, 1839, Captain John Bird and a company of just 34 Texas Rangers clashed here with a far larger force of some 240 Native fighters during the Republic of Texas era. Bird was killed in the fight, but his outnumbered command reportedly drove off their opponents. The engagement was one of many bloody frontier skirmishes as Anglo settlement pushed into Central Texas.
Bird Creek Indian Battle
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