First Presbyterian Church of Forney

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the First Presbyterian Church of Forney, out in Kaufman County. Now settle in, because this story starts not once, but twice: two separate congregations, two different names, two different roads leading to the same front door. The first thread goes all the way back to 1872, before this town was even called Forney.

Back then, the place went by Brooklyn, and it was in Brooklyn that the Brooklyn Church of the Presbytery of Bacon of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church was organized. Let that name roll around in your head for a moment. That is a name that means business.

The second thread picked up a decade later, 1883, when the Forney Presbyterian Church U.S., the Southern congregation, came together and built a sanctuary right here on this very site. So you've got one church born in a town that hadn't found its permanent name yet, and another church built on the ground you're standing near right now. Two congregations, years apart, both holding on.

And then came 1919. That's when the merger happened, the two threads finally pulled together into one, and the name was changed to First Presbyterian Church of Forney. But they weren't done yet.

Not by a long shot. Because in October of 1925, a brand new red brick structure was dedicated on this site; something solid, something lasting, something you could point to from the road. And here's the thing about a story like this one: it doesn't end with a dedication ceremony.

The marker tells us this church continues to be a vital part of the Forney community. Two congregations, one merger, one red brick building, and more than a century of showing up. That's not a footnote; that's a foundation.

What the marker says

This church was created by the merger of two congregations. Before the town of Brooklyn was renamed Forney, the Brooklyn Church of the Presbytery of Bacon of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church was organized in 1872. A second congregation, the Forney Presbyterian Church U.S. (Southern), began in 1883, and built a sanctuary on this site. Following the merger in 1919, the name was changed to First Presbyterian Church of Forney. A new red brick structure was dedicated in October, 1925, and the church continues to be a vital part of the Forney community. Texas Sesquicentennial 1836-1986