DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm gonna do my best to do it justice. Back in the 1840s, settlers pushed into this corner of what would become Grayson County as part of the Peters Colony. Quiet country, wide sky, the kind of place where a community takes root slow and holds on hard.
The settlement was known as Summit back then — modest name for modest beginnings. But then word came in the early 1870s that the Houston and Texas Central Railroad was heading through, and Summit was suddenly a lot more interesting to a lot more people. New residents arrived, ambitions arrived with them, and around 1872 the town was renamed Howe — after a railroad official by the name of F.M.
Howe. That same year, several of those residents sat down together with something else on their minds entirely. Not rail lines.
Not commerce. Something quieter and considerably more lasting. They set about organizing what would become the First Christian Church of Howe.
The founders and charter members were George Miller, J.A. Hughes, Henry Stevens, J.A. Matthews, W.T.
Copeland, Si Collins, C.E. Wheat, L.M. Davis, J.C.
McBee, Jim McCoy, and John Grigg. That's eleven names worth remembering. In those early days the congregation had no building to call its own, so they met where they could — homes, schools, whatever other buildings would have them.
First Sunday School classes, first worship services, all of it conducted wherever there was a roof and willing hearts. The congregation grew — as congregations sometimes do when they're built on that kind of foundation — and in 1893 they purchased a site from John W. and Minnie B. Simpson.
With trustees Charlie Hanna, J.W. Bearden, and John and Frank Grigg leading the way, the church constructed a building right there on that property. Now, they weren't alone in the effort.
That building was one of four Protestant sanctuaries going up in Howe during that same period, and all four shared a certain kinship in their design — vernacular construction with Victorian influences, fishscale shingling, steep-pitched gable roofs, neo-gothic details. Four congregations, four churches, all speaking a similar architectural language across the same small town. The First Christian Church kept growin' into the new century.
In 1925 the congregation added an annex. They later purchased a parsonage on adjoining property. Through the years, members held revivals in the churchyard and ministered and witnessed to the people of the Howe community — decade after decade of Sunday mornings and weeknight gatherings and voices carrying out across that yard.
Then 1982 came. Membership had declined, the way it sometimes does, and the congregation made a hard decision. The church disbanded.
But what they did next says something about the kind of people who had built that place over a hundred and ten years. They donated the sanctuary and the site to the city of Howe. The city, in turn, prepared to use the facility for community purposes — keeping a link, as the marker puts it, to the community's past.
Eleven names around a table in 1872. A sanctuary still standing in 1982. Some things outlast the people who built them, and some buildings hold the echo of every voice that ever filled them.
What the marker says
First Christian Church of Howe In the 1840s, settlers moved to this area as part of the Peters Colony. In the early 1870s, plans for the Houston and Texas Central Railroad coming through the settlement brought new residents to the community, known as Summit. Renamed for railroad official F.M. Howe, the town of Howe was established circa 1872. That same year, several residents met to organize what would become the First Christian Church of Howe. Founders and charter members included George Miller, J.A. Hughes, Henry Stevens, J.A. Matthews, W.T. Copeland, Si Collins, C.E. Wheat, L.M. Davis, J.C. McBee, Jim McCoy and John Grigg, and members held their first Sunday School classes and worship services in homes, schools and other buildings. The congregation grew and purchased this site in 1893 from John W. and Minnie B. Simpson. The church, led by trustees Charlie Hanna, J.W. Bearden, and John and Frank Grigg, constructed a building on the site. The structure was one of four Protestant sanctuaries constructed in Howe during that period. Each had similar vernacular designs showing Victorian influences. Features included fishscale shingling, steep-pitched gable roofs and neo-gothic details. The First Christian Church congregation added an annex in 1925 and later purchased a parsonage on adjoining property. During its years as a congregation, the First Christian Church members held revivals in the churchyard and ministered and witnessed to those in the Howe community. In 1982, because of declining membership, the church disbanded, and members donated the sanctuary and site to the city, which prepared to use the facility for community purposes while maintaining a link to the community's past. (2003)