Presbyterian Church

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm just along for the ride. Way out in Hamilton County, on a September day in 1880, a man named Reverend John A. McMurray rode into town with a purpose.

He was an evangelist of the Central Texas Presbytery, and on September fifth of that year, he organized what would become the Presbyterian Church of Hamilton. Now, that's a clean, simple sentence, but think about what it meant on the ground. Hamilton was a young place, still findin' its footing, and this congregation was about to give it something it had never had.

A building. The first frame church erected in Hamilton. They put it up in the early 1880s, over on South College Avenue, number 119, and for years that building did more than serve one flock.

Other faiths gathered inside those same walls on Sunday evenings, borrowing the space, which tells you something about how scarce church buildings were and how generous this congregation chose to be. The charter members who signed on at the very beginning were W. T.

Cropper, Mr. and Mrs. A. J.

Foster, Mr. and Mrs. R. C.

Howard, Andrew Miller, and D. L. Reynolds.

Early on, the membership grew to include Robert Miller, Mrs. Tom Brunk, Mrs. Jane Roddy, and Mrs.

Mary Taylor. Names worth saying out loud, because they were the ones who showed up first. Now here's the part of this story that earns its place in the telling.

In 1947, that original church building, the whole thing, was moved intact from its site at 119 South College Avenue and incorporated into a new structure. Not torn down. Not abandoned.

Moved. Whole. Folded right into something bigger.

That building that started as the first frame church in Hamilton found a way to keep going, carrying every board and every memory with it right into the next chapter.

What the marker says

Organized Sept. 5, 1880, by Rev. John A. McMurray, evangelist of Central Texas Presbytery. Its building of early 1880s was first frame church erected in Hamilton; used by other faiths on Sunday evenings for years. Charter members included W. T. Cropper, Mr. and Mrs. A. J. Foster, Mr. and Mrs. R. C. Howard, Andrew Miller and D. L. Reynolds. Other early members were Robt. Miller and Mrs. Tom Brunk, Mrs. Jane Roddy and Mrs. Mary Taylor. The church was moved intact from original site at 119 South College Avenue; was incorporated in this new structure, 1947. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark, 1967