Peatown Christian Church
Longview, Gregg County, Texas
Marker Inscription
This church traces its history to a Disciples of Christ congregation (Christian Union Church) organized near Camden in 1852. When that church disbanded during the early 1870s, its members formed new congregations in other places. The Peatown Christian Church was organized in 1871 with twelve charter members. It drew families from the ante bellum settlement of Edwardsville, commonly known as Peatown, and neighboring rural communities. Its members worshiped in the old Christian Union Church building for over 50 years and held baptisms in the nearby spring.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
This East Texas congregation traces its roots to a Disciples of Christ church gathered near Camden in 1852, in the antebellum decades when scattered rural families built faith communities of their own. When that early church dissolved in the 1870s, its members regrouped, and the Peatown Christian Church took shape in 1871 with twelve charter members drawn from the settlement of Edwardsville—locally called Peatown—and nearby farms. For over fifty years they worshiped in the old building and baptized new members in a neighboring spring.
Why it matters
Frontier churches were the first durable institutions in newly settled country, knitting scattered farm families into communities that outlasted the settlements that spawned them.
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Themes & tags
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