First Presbyterian Church of Commerce

Duane's take

Here's my telling of the official marker for the First Presbyterian Church of Commerce, up in Hunt County. Settle in. This one's got patience built right into its bones.

November 1888. Seventeen charter members gathered together with the Reverend J. C.

Grow, and they did what people do when they mean to stay somewhere. They organized a church. The First Presbyterian Church of Commerce.

Now, seventeen people isn't a crowd, but it's enough. Enough to make a promise, enough to build something that lasts. Reverend Grow, born in 1841 and gone by 1903, helped set that foundation in motion.

But the congregation didn't have walls of their own just yet. They met in the town's Union Church, borrowing space the way new things often do, taking shelter under someone else's roof while they figured out their own. That changed in 1893, when their wooden frame sanctuary was completed.

A place to call theirs. Then 1897 brought another milestone. The Reverend Elijah B.

Fincher came on as the church's first full-time resident pastor. First full-time. That phrase matters.

It means the congregation had grown enough, committed enough, to need someone there all the time. And still they kept building. By 1913, a new brick sanctuary stood on the corner of Monroe and Caddo streets.

Something more permanent now. Something you could point to from down the block. Additional structures have gone up over the years since.

The marker says it plainly, and plainly is exactly right: this church has been part of the city's history for over a century. Seventeen people in November 1888 made a decision, and Commerce, Texas has been living with that decision ever since.

What the marker says

In November 1888 seventeen charter members joined with the Rev. J. C. Grow (1841-1903) to organize the First Presbyterian Church of Commerce. The congregation met in the town's Union Church until their own wooden frame sanctuary was completed in 1893. The Rev. Elijah B. Fincher became the church's first full-time resident pastor in 1897. A new brick sanctuary was completed on the corner of Monroe and Caddo streets in 1913, and additional structures have been built over the years. This church has been part of the city's history for over a century.