Site of First Presbyterian Church of Fluvanna
Fluvanna, Scurry County, Texas
Marker Inscription
A vital religious and social institution for early settlers, this church was founded in 1893 by The Rev. W.W. Werner as Deep Creek Congregation. Worshipers met at Jumbo Ranch Schoolhouse. (1.5 mi. E) until 1902, then occupied the school building at Light (1 mi. E). Residents of Light relocated along the railroad in Fluvanna in 1909, and the membership became the First Presbyterian Church of Fluvanna. Services continued in the Light Schoolhouse, which was moved to this site in 1910. The congregation disbanded in 1975. (1977)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Founded in 1893 as the Deep Creek Congregation, this church followed its scattered West Texas flock from a ranch schoolhouse to the tiny community of Light and finally to Fluvanna, where residents relocated to be near the railroad in 1909. The old Light schoolhouse was even moved to this site in 1910 to serve as its home. The congregation carried on until it disbanded in 1975.
Why it matters
The church's wandering path tracks how the railroad reorganized settlement across the West Texas plains, pulling communities and their institutions toward the tracks.
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Related people
- · W. W. Werner
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Former Townsite of Light
Fluvanna, TX
The town of Light sprang up in 1899 around a new post office on D. C. McGregor's land, growing further when a ranch schoolhouse was relocated there and a two-room school followed in 1905. Its fortunes reversed almost as quickly: when nearby Fluvanna was surveyed in 1907 at the terminus of the Roscoe, Snyder & Pacific Railroad, residents hauled their buildings a mile west to be on the rails. Light soon vanished, though the area still supplies water to its rival.
Fluvanna
Fluvanna, TX
Fluvanna was born of a 1907 real estate venture, named by its surveyor for his home county in Virginia. When the Roscoe, Snyder & Pacific Railroad reached the townsite in 1909, settlers marked the occasion with a three-day picnic and even hauled buildings over from nearby Light, Texas. The town thrived as a cattle-shipping and cotton point until the railroad ceased operating here in 1942, settling into life as a farming community.
Dermott
Snyder, TX
Dermott is a West Texas town that chased the railroads. It began as a crossroads community called Dark, took its later name from storekeeper and postmaster S. P. McDermott, and physically picked up and moved twice — in 1909 to the Roscoe, Snyder & Pacific line and again in 1915 to the Santa Fe. With competing railroads and full loading pens, it became a busy cattle-shipping point, faded when the R.S. & P. tracks were pulled up in 1942, then revived during the county's late-1940s oil boom.
The Brazos River in Justiceburg
Justiceburg, TX
The stretch of the Brazos River near Justiceburg has drawn people for centuries, and the marker traces the river's many names across cultures — the Caddoan "Tokonohono," La Salle's "Malingne," and "La Trinidad" recorded by Spanish expeditions in 1716. Legends of parched travelers, from Coronado's men onward, finding lifesaving water gave rise to the enduring name Los Brazos de Dios, "the arms of God." Fresh water and the arrival of the Santa Fe railroad in 1910 spurred the town of Justiceburg, named for rancher Jefferson Davis Justice, who donated the townsite.