First Presbyterian Church and Manse

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the First Presbyterian Church and Manse in Grayson County. Now settle in, because this story starts long before anybody laid a single stone of that fine building you might be looking at right now. It starts in a home.

A man named Christopher Sears opened his door, and on October 30, 1853, a Cumberland Presbyterian Church was organized right there inside it, in a community called Lick Skillet, which the marker also names as Pilot Grove. That is a detail worth sitting with. Lick Skillet.

Somebody had a sense of humor, or maybe just a sense of hunger. A man named J.A. Zinn served as moderator that day, and three men, T.E.

Montgomery, J.D. Barbee, and J.T. Clark, stepped up as the first elders.

Four men, one home, one October afternoon in 1853, and the thing was done. A church existed. Now here is where the story starts to move.

That little congregation didn't just hold steady. In the 1860s it established two other congregations, the Canaan congregation and the Sears Chapel congregation. Two new communities of faith, grown from that original Lick Skillet gathering.

Then Sears Chapel made a move. In 1883 it relocated to Whitewright. It built a sanctuary in 1899.

And in 1907, it became what we know today as First Presbyterian Church. New name. New chapter.

Then in 1930, the congregation itself erected the Classical Revival building that stands on this site, complete with art glass windows and doors. Not a modest little meeting room. A proper, beautiful, Classical Revival church.

And right next to it, the manse, which has been providing housing for pastors since 1902. From a home called Lick Skillet to a Classical Revival landmark in Whitewright. That is not a short road, and it is not a small story.

What the marker says

On October 30, 1853, a Cumberland Presbyterian Church was organized in the home of Christopher Sears in nearby Lick Skillet (Pilot Grove). J.A. Zinn served as moderator, and T.E. Montgomery, J.D. Barbee, and J.T. Clark as first elders. The church established the Canaan and Sears Chapel congregations in the 1860s. Sears Chapel moved to Whitewright in 1883, built a sanctuary in 1899, and became First Presbyterian Church in 1907. This Classical Revival church building, erected by the congregation in 1930, features art glass windows and doors. The adjacent manse has provided housing for pastors since 1902. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1994