Grace First Presbyterian Church
Weatherford, Parker County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Three congregations, the earliest founded in 1859, joined forces in Parker County to create Grace First Presbyterian Church. The Cumberland Presbyterian Church, the oldest of the three congregations, focused on education as an important ministry to this church. The Pioneer School at Veal Station was deeded to the church to improve the education of Parker County’s youth. The Texas Female Seminary was established in 1889 by the Presbyterians and flourished until 1911 when it was sold to the Weatherford Sanitarium. The Weatherford Presbyterian Church (later the First Presbyterian Church) was established by the P.C.U.S. in 1874. When the Rev. H. A. Tucker, related to the northern branch of Presbyterianism, was mistakenly called by the Weatherford Presbyterian Church, the result was the establishment of the First Presbyterian Church U.S.A. Grace Presbyterian Church, a U.S.A. congregation, in 1906 grew out of the Cumberland congregation. Grace and first informally joined forces in 1927 after prayer and consideration. In 1964 the Weatherford congregations merged to organize as Grace First Presbyterian Church. Members have contributed to the community in numerous ways, including the establishment and continuing support of Manna Storehouse, Inc., the first community-based agency to provide food and clothing for Parker County’s needy citizens. Grace First members helped establish the Parker County chapter of Habitat for Humanity and are also active in the work of the Fort Worth Presbyterian night shelter. In 1974, g Grace First Presbyterian Church celebrated 100 years of worship and service in the Weatherford community by moving into a new building, and continues to worship and serve the Parker County community to this day.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
This congregation grew from three separate Presbyterian bodies that took root in Parker County beginning in 1859, the oldest of them a Cumberland Presbyterian church that prized schooling as ministry. Its members helped run early frontier schools and founded the Texas Female Seminary in 1889, an unusual investment in women's education for the time and place. After decades of parallel worship the congregations formally merged in 1964, carrying a long tradition of community service into the present.
Why it matters
Frontier churches were often a town's first schools and charities, and this one's century of education and relief work shows how faith communities knit together the civic life of a young Texas county.
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