First Presbyterian Church
Snyder, Scurry County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Organized June 13, 1892, as the First Cumberland Presbyterian Church, by The Rev. W. W. Werner, with seven charter members. In 1906 original church body joined the Abilene Presbytery, Presbyterian Church, U.S.A. Congregation moved from its first location (Ave. Q and 26th) in 1924. Used basement at Avenue R and 28th Street for worship until sanctuary was completed in 1929. Leaded stained glass memorial windows honor small, dedicated congregation who built this church. Bell, forged in 1902 and still used regularly, came from white frame church of 1904. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark, 1969
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Organized in 1892 as the First Cumberland Presbyterian Church with just seven charter members, this West Texas congregation took root in the young ranching town of Snyder. In 1906 it joined the mainline Presbyterian Church, and by 1929 the small but determined membership had completed the sanctuary whose leaded stained-glass windows honor their sacrifice. A bell forged in 1902, carried from an earlier frame church, still rings today.
Why it matters
Frontier congregations like this one mark how faith communities anchored the settlement of West Texas, turning raw cattle towns into permanent places with schools, churches, and civic life.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Rev. W. W. Werner
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
First Methodist Church
Snyder, TX
This Snyder congregation traces its beginnings to a brush-arbor revival on Ennis Creek in July 1883, out on the open West Texas range. Its first one-room church rose in 1889 on land donated by the T. N. Nunn family, and when the flock outgrew it the courthouse became a makeshift sanctuary. A red-brick church with a domed roof and sloping floor followed in 1914, succeeded by later buildings as the congregation kept growing.
First Baptist Church of Snyder
Snyder, TX
Organized in May 1883—a year before Scurry County was even formally established—this congregation began as the Bledsoe Baptist Church, named for founder John S. Bledsoe, with worship held in the schoolhouse on alternate Sundays. It took the name First Baptist Church of Snyder in 1892 and bought the town lot it has occupied through four successive sanctuaries ever since. From a small frame building with a bell tower to a brick church and modern education plant, its growth tracks the town's own.
Scurry County Jail of 1912
Snyder, TX
By 1911 Scurry County's two earlier jails, built in 1884 and 1886, had proven too small, so the commissioners court used bond money to purchase this site and raise a sturdy brick building, finished with local labor in 1912. The jailer and his family lived on the first floor, while prisoner cells and even a small hospital occupied the upper two stories. A grim feature set into the design was a trapdoor meant to serve as a hanging gallows. The jail did its duty for more than sixty years.
Site of Sanitarium of Alonzo Orrin Scarborough (1860-1952) Pioneer Doctor
Snyder, TX
Alonzo Orrin Scarborough came to Snyder in 1881 as a ranch horse trainer, taught himself medicine by 'reading' it, and began practicing in 1886 before earning his M.D. from the Kentucky School of Medicine in 1889. For decades he answered calls on horseback, riding alone through the night across the sparsely settled Scurry County range, and served as chief railroad surgeon and the county's first public health officer. In 1910 he opened the Scarborough Sanitarium, the county's first hospital, and kept practicing until he was ninety.