Milford Presbyterian Church
Milford, Ellis County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Organized in June 1855 with 16 members, as one of 4 Presbyterian churches within a radius of 500 miles. Early, horseback-traveling pastors organized and served 3 churches in outlying areas. Congregation built houses of worship in 1860, 1896, 1921. This church was 4 times host to the Presbytery, 1861-71; to Synod, 1920. Records show Milford has been self-sustaining, faithful to support Presbyterian colleges of Texas, and high in benevolences. Church bell, cast in New York, and brought here by ship, rail and ox-wagon, has called area to worship since 1871.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Organized in June 1855 with sixteen members, this Presbyterian congregation stood as one of only a handful within a vast frontier radius, served at first by circuit-riding pastors who traveled by horseback to tend several churches at once. It built successive houses of worship in 1860, 1896, and 1921 and repeatedly hosted regional church gatherings. Its bell, cast in New York and carried here by ship, rail, and ox-wagon, has summoned worshippers since 1871.
Why it matters
The congregation's reach and its well-traveled bell illustrate how faith communities knit together a sparsely settled frontier long before roads and railroads made it easy.
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Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
First Baptist Church of Milford
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Chartered in 1855 with just eleven members gathered in Dr. J.M. Higgins's home, Milford's First Baptist congregation was among the earliest in newly settled Ellis County. Its founding pastor, Alabama-born J.M. Perry, led a fellowship that worshiped in a shared 1856 chapel before moving to this site in 1871, where Baptists and Cumberland Presbyterians together financed a sanctuary. Later structures rose in 1890 and 1917 as the town grew.
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Thomas J. Jordan
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Thomas J. Jordan carried a rifle for the fledgling Texas Army in 1836, the year Texian forces won independence from Mexico at San Jacinto. Tennessee-born like so many who poured into the new republic, he lived out his days on the Blackland Prairie of Ellis County, where he and his wife Stacy are remembered side by side. Their joined dates trace a full pioneer lifetime spanning frontier Texas from revolution to the Gilded Age.
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