First Christian Church of San Marcos

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Way back in 1853, a preacher named Reverend Henry Thomas gathered up what he had, and what he had wasn't much. Two members.

That was the whole congregation of the First Christian Church of San Marcos. Two. Now, some folks might have looked at that number and quietly packed their hymnal and gone home.

But Reverend Thomas did not. By 1856, those two had become fifty, and something was clearly taking root in the Texas soil. Then came the Civil War, and like so many things in those years, the congregation went quiet.

It took a Reverend W. H. D.

Carrington, coming down from Austin, to reactivate it and get the people back together. That's the kind of story this church keeps telling, by the way. Knocked down, stood back up.

You'll see it again. The present building went up in 1893, and here's where it gets a little spicy. Even as that building was being raised, some members walked out over doctrinal conflicts.

Church history is never as peaceful as the stained glass makes it look. The man who designed that building was architect Edward Northcraft, born in 1833, and he put his work on land donated by a banker named Edwin J. L.

Green, born in 1841. Two men with roots going deep, each leaving something behind. Then in 1895, an evangelist named J.

B. Boen came through for a revival, and membership climbed again. By 1910, the fellowship had grown enough to add a whole new sanctuary.

And by 1975, the year before this marker was recorded, the congregation had grown to about 125 families. Started with two. Just two.

Some seeds, it turns out, are harder to pull up than you'd think.

What the marker says

Formed by the Rev. Henry Thomas in 1853 with only two members, the congregation had grown to fifty members by 1856. After the Civil War, it was reactivated by the Rev. W. H. D. Carrington of Austin. The present church building was constructed in 1893, when some members withdrew because of doctrinal conflicts. Designed by architect Edward Northcraft (1833-1919), it was erected on land donated by banker Edwin J. L. Green (1841-1924). Membership increased after a revival led by Evangelist J. B. Boen in 1895, and a new sanctuary was added in 1910. In 1975, the fellowship included about 125 families.