First Christian Church

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the First Christian Church in Shackelford County. December of 1886. An evangelist named J.

P. Pinkerton stands before twenty-six people drawn from nineteen families, and together they decide to found a church. Now, they needed a place to meet, and they found one right at the center of civic life, the Shackelford County Courthouse.

That's where this congregation got its start. But a courthouse is borrowed ground, and a church needs a home of its own. That's where Miss Betty Parker comes in.

She gave fifty dollars to buy land, and on that land, at the corner of South Third and Pecan, the congregation built a one-room frame building. They finished it in January of 1889. One room.

Nineteen families worth of faith packed into one room. For years, that little building was the whole of it. Then came 1920.

The church sold that original property to the American Legion, and a woman named Mrs. J. W.

Eaheart donated new land over at South Second and Walnut. What rose on that donated ground was something else entirely, a new church with a fellowship hall and seven Sunday school rooms. They dedicated it on September 11, 1921.

Thirty-two years later, in 1953, the congregation remodeled and enlarged it again. A congregation of the Christian Church, Disciples of Christ, this pioneer Albany church is still standing, still worshiping, still serving the community that J. P.

Pinkerton and those twenty-six people set out to serve back in December of 1886. Some things, it turns out, are built to last.

What the marker says

In December 1886, evangelist J. P. Pinkerton led 26 people from 19 families to found this church. Members met in the Shackelford County Courthouse. Miss Betty Parker then gave $50 to buy land for a one-room frame building completed in January 1889 at South Third and Pecan. In 1920, the church sold that property to the American Legion, when Mrs. J. W. Eaheart donated land at South Second and Walnut. The new church, which included a fellowship hall and seven Sunday school rooms, was dedicated on September 11, 1921. The church was remodeled and enlarged in 1953. A congregation of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), this pioneer Albany church continues to witness and worship here, and to serve this community.