DUANE
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Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. The town of Elgin came into being in 1872, laid out along the route of the Houston and Texas Central Railroad. That railroad was the spine of a lot of towns out here in Central Texas, and Elgin was one of them.
Now, it didn't take long for folks to start thinking about more than just commerce and crop prices. By 1881, the Rev. A.
J. Adkisson had organized a Cumberland Presbyterian congregation, and ten charter members stood up and said they were in. Ten people.
That's it. That's your foundation. You've seen bigger crowds at a county road argument.
But ten determined people have built more than most give them credit for. For years, that little congregation wandered, the way young congregations do. They gathered in local churches, they gathered in the schoolhouse, passing through borrowed rooms like a family saving up for a place of their own.
Then 1886 came around, and they were done borrowing. They purchased property, built themselves a frame church, and a manse to go along with it. A real home.
Now jump forward to 1908, and the congregation called its first full-time pastor, the Rev. S. A.
Comer. The very next year, 1909, they went and erected a red brick and wood church building. That is a congregation that was going somewhere, and they wanted something that looked the part.
Red brick tends to say what words sometimes can't. The church marked its 100th anniversary in 1981, and the marker tells us it remains an integral part of the community. Ten charter members in 1881.
One sturdy red brick church by 1909. Some foundations, it turns out, hold.
What the marker says
The town of Elgin was founded in 1872 along the route of the Houston & Texas Central Railroad. By 1881 a Cumberland Presbyterian church was organized by the Rev. A. J. Adkisson and 10 charter members. The congregation met in local churches and the schoolhouse until 1886 when they purchased property and built a frame church and manse. The first full-time pastor, the Rev. S. A. Comer, was called in 1908, and in 1909 a red brick and wood church building was erected. The church celebrated its 100th anniversary in 1981 and remains an integral part of the community. (1997)