First Christian Church of Bonham

The congregation began in a seminary, not a church. A sketch on the Fannin County Historical Commission's site says Charles Carlton found no Disciples meeting in Bonham in 1867 and started by running a union Sunday School, later preaching monthly where it met. Twenty-five charter members came together as a Church of Christ on May 31, 1868, the sketch says, and two protracted meetings that year added sixty-seven. The first elders were Carlton, Dr. S. J. Saunders, Robert Henderson and, later, James Arledge. For ten years the congregation met at Carlton's seminary before buying a lot.

What the plaque says

First Christian Church of Bonham Congregation organized in 1868 by Charles Carlton (1821-1902). Born in England, he was educated in West Virginia under Alexander Campbell, founder of Disciples of Christ movement. Carlton moved to Bonham in 1867 and here organized Carlton College. First Christian Church was established on May 31, 1868, with 27 charter members. This lot was bought from Col. Jack R. Russell in 1877, and a frame building was erected in 1878. Present classical revival structure was built in 1912. The Rev. Charles M. Schoonover was minister at its dedication. (1971)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Sam Rayburn House State Historic Site — 2.1 mi
  The two-story farmhouse west of Bonham that the longtime Speaker of the House built in 1916 and kept as his home, left as he lived in it and open as a museum since 1975.
• Eisenhower Birthplace State Historic Site — 23 mi
  The small frame house beside the Katy tracks in Denison where Dwight Eisenhower was born in 1890, bought by townspeople in 1946 and given to Texas in 1958.
• Eisenhower State Park — 29 mi
  A bluff-top park on Lake Texoma opened in 1958 on land leased from the Corps of Engineers, in the Red River country of Fort Johnson, Colbert's Ferry and the Butterfield stages.

More markers nearby

• Confederate Commissary — steps away
• First Baptist Church — steps away
• Constantine Lodge No. 13, A. F. & A. M. — steps away
• Site of Steger Opera House — steps away