First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)

The strike the plaque names was national, and in a railroad town it touched nearly every pew. On July 1, 1922, about 400,000 shop and maintenance workers walked out after the federal Railroad Labor Board cut their pay by seven cents an hour, roughly 12 percent; the train crews' brotherhoods were spared the cut and stayed at work. At least ten strikers or family members were killed across the country. A sweeping federal injunction on September 1 broke the walkout, and many shopmen settled line by line on the railroads' terms.

What the plaque says

First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) ON OCT. 11, 1911, THE FIRST CHRISTIAN CHURCH OF KINGSVILLE WAS ORGANIZED, MANY OF ITS CHARTER MEMBERS BEING EMPLOYEES OF THE TOWN'S NEW RAILROAD. WHEN THERE WAS A LACK OF FUNDS TO CONSTRUCT A CHURCH, THE COMMUNITY RESPONDED WITH DONATIONS, ALLOWING BUILDING TO BEGIN IN 1913. THE PRESENT STRUCTURE, HOWEVER, IS FROM A SEPARATE 1955 PROJECT. OVER THE YEARS, THE CHURCH HAS WEATHERED THE GREAT STRIKE OF 1922, THE WORLD WARS, AND THE GREAT DEPRESSION. IT HAS DEDICATED MUCH TO THE PUBLIC THROUGH ITS WOMEN'S GROUPS, LANGUAGE SCHOOL, AND FOOD PROGRAMS, THEREBY FULFILLING ITS COVENANT TO STRENGTHEN AND HEAL THE COMMUNITY WHILE SHARING GOD'S GIFTS. (2011)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• King Ranch Visitor Center — 2.9 mi
  The bus-tour gate to a working ranch of about 825,000 acres, founded on Santa Gertrudis Creek in 1853 and worked from the start by the Kineños, families from Cruillas in Tamaulipas.
• Kenedy Ranch Museum of South Texas — 19 mi
  A museum in the Kenedy Pasture Company's 1927 office in Sarita, telling how Mifflin Kenedy and three generations of his family shaped the Wild Horse Desert, with murals and an audio guide.
• Don Pedrito Jaramillo Shrine — 24 mi
  The grave and shrine of the folk healer of Los Olmos, a place of prayer where South Texans still leave candles and letters for the curandero who took no fee.
• Heritage Museum at Falfurrias — 26 mi
  A free town museum of ranch gear, a Texas Ranger room and 99,000 photo negatives, in the town Edward Lasater built around his railroad and his Jersey cows.

More markers nearby

• St. Paul Lutheran Church — 0.9 mi
• Taylor Camp Site, 1846 — 1.1 mi
• Englishmen in South Texas, 1568 — 1.3 mi
• King Star Baptist Church — 1.4 mi