Site of First Church in Upton County
Rankin, Upton County, Texas
Marker Inscription
After pioneers of Upland (12 miles N.) resettled here in 1912 on Kansas City, Mexico & Orient Railway, they held religious services in the railroad depot, then acquired a non-denominational church site on this corner. Ira G. Yates, later an oil baron, headed building fund donors' list. George E. Blanton, a Baptist; Dr. J. H. Johnson, Church of Christ; and H. H. Russell, Methodist, were trustees. The "Rankin Union Church" building, finished in 1915, housed local school two years. It was county's only church until the late 1920s. This site was sold to the Methodists in 1939.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
When pioneers abandoned nearby Upland and resettled at Rankin in 1912 along the Kansas City, Mexico & Orient Railway, they first worshipped in the railroad depot before building a shared church on this corner. Future oil baron Ira G. Yates led the donors, and Baptist, Church of Christ, and Methodist trustees jointly oversaw the "Rankin Union Church," finished in 1915. For a time it also housed the local school and remained the county's only church until the late 1920s.
Why it matters
The union church shows how thinly settled West Texas frontier towns pooled every denomination and civic need into a single building until railroads and oil money let the community grow apart into separate institutions.
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Related people
- · Ira G. Yates
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Elliott Ranch
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Platted in 1908 by Henry Halff and his son, Upland was conceived as a stop on a projected St. Louis–to–Chihuahua rail line and sat near the old Butterfield stage route. Named the first seat of Upton County in 1910, it gained a stone courthouse and a school, but when new rail lines bypassed it and drought set in, the town withered. By 1921 its buildings had been hauled off to Rankin, and Upland was left to the prairie.
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Rankin became the seat of Upton County in 1921, taking its name from F. E. Rankin, who donated the land for the railway station that anchored the town. More than a shipping point, the station was the hub of community life—host to Saturday-night cowboy dances and Sunday church services alike. The town later produced world-champion rodeo stars Toots Mansfield and Allen Holder.
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