First Presbyterian Church of Yoakum

Duane's take

The way I tell it, I'm drawing straight from the official marker for First Presbyterian Church of Yoakum, so let's get into it. Now, most churches ease into existence, gathering a handful of folks here, a few more there, over a long slow season. But this congregation didn't ease into anything.

They organized on December 31, 1893. New Year's Eve. Maybe they figured if you're going to start something that lasts, you might as well start it at the very edge of one year and the next.

With the help of Presbyterian Evangelist Dr. A. H.

P. McCurdy, twenty-two charter members signed on. Thompson Presley, Mrs.

M. H. Boyd, Mr. and Mrs.

A. H. Harnden, Rosa Lee Scott, Susan Beason, Mrs.

C. B. Crow, Mr. and Mrs.

Newton Johnson, Gussie Johnson, Mr. and Mrs. W. C.

Kaiser, Earnest Johnson, and Esther Starkey. Names worth saying out loud. They showed up.

In 1895 the congregation purchased land right here at this site, and by 1898 they had raised a forty by twenty-five foot wood frame sanctuary. Not grand, maybe, but it was theirs. Before the pastor arrived, before the rolls swelled, the women were already building the thing from the inside out.

A Ladies Aid Society organized in 1897. A Sunday School opened in 1899. Then in 1908 the congregation got its first full-time pastor, the Reverend Edwin W.

Ford, because up until that moment they had been served by evangelists passing through. Membership grew rapidly in the early nineteen hundreds, and in 1917 they hit their highest recorded enrollment: two hundred and twelve members. That is a number worth pausin' on.

Two hundred and twelve. Then comes 1926, and here is where the story gets a little wonderfully strange. They didn't tear down that original building.

They shifted it to another direction, brick-veneered it, and transformed it into a two-story plant with a sanctuary upstairs and a fellowship hall in the basement area. For many years, Sunday School classes kept meeting in a small wooden structure behind the church. They made do.

They made it work. Twenty-two names on a piece of paper on New Year's Eve, and what grew from that is still here, still serving this community. Yoakum's First Presbyterian Church.

Some roots, once they take hold, just don't let go.

What the marker says

This congregation was organized on December 31, 1893, with the help of Presbyterian Evangelist Dr. A. H. P. McCurdy and 22 charter members, including Thompson Presley, Mrs. M. H. Boyd, Mr. and Mrs. A. H. Harnden, Rosa Lee Scott, Susan Beason, Mrs. C. B. Crow, Mr. and Mrs. Newton Johnson, Gussie Johnson, Mr. and Mrs. W. C. Kaiser, Earnest Johnson, and Esther Starkey. In 1895 the congregation purchased land at this site and in 1898 they erected a 40 x 25 foot wood frame sanctuary. A Ladies Aid Society, later known as Presbyterian Women, organized in 1897, and a Sunday School opened in 1899. The congregation was served by Presbyterian evangelists until 1908 when the Rev. Edwin W. Ford became the first full-time pastor. Membership grew rapidly during the early 1900s and in 1917 the congregation reached its highest recorded enrollment of 212. In 1926 the original church building was shifted to another direction, brick-veneered, and modified into a two-story plant, with a sanctuary upstairs and a fellowship hall in the basement area. For many years Sunday School classes were held in a small wooden structure behind the church building. First Presbyterian Church continues to serve the community with various activities and programs.