First Christian Church of Kaufman

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to honor every word. Way back in 1861, a man named R. A.

Hindman rolled into the Kaufman area, and if that name sounds like someone who didn't sit still for long, well, the record bears that out. Hindman had already started the first newspaper in Kaufman, which tells you something about the kind of man he was: show up, get to work, leave a mark. And in that same year, 1861, with Hindman's direction, a congregation took shape.

The First Christian Church of Kaufman had arrived, even if it didn't have four walls to show for it yet. For sixteen years, the faithful gathered in homes. Sixteen years of Sunday services in parlors and front rooms, neighbors crowding in, passing the word along.

Then 1877 came, and the congregation did something with a certain elegance to it: they bought a sanctuary from the Presbyterian church, right there on the corner of Shannon and Houston streets. One congregation's chapel became another's. That's Kaufman for you.

Now, the church kept growin', and by 1956 they'd acquired a two-story residence over at 504 South Houston to serve as an educational building. A solid plan. A promising addition.

And then 1961 arrived, and fire destroyed it. Just like that; gone. But here's where the story takes one of those turns that makes you sit up a little straighter around the campfire.

Later that very same year, 1961, the congregation began worshiping at a new location, in remodeled barracks. Barracks that had been moved all the way from Love Field in Dallas. A church born in living rooms, that had worshiped in a borrowed Presbyterian sanctuary, that had lost a building to fire, now gathered under a roof that had once sheltered a whole different kind of life.

R. A. Hindman would've probably written that story up for the paper.

What the marker says

R. A. Hindman, who started the first newspaper in Kaufman, moved to the area in 1861. With his direction, this congregation was organized the same year. Services were conducted in homes until 1877 when members bought a sanctuary at the corner of Shannon and Houston streets from the Presbyterian church. A two-story residence at 504 S. Houston, acquired in 1956, served as an educational building until fire destroyed it in 1961. Later that year the church began worshiping at this location in remodeled barracks moved from Love Field in Dallas.