First Christian Church

Van Alstyne has two possible namesakes. The Handbook of Texas entry on the town says it honored either William A. Van Alstyne, a civil engineer who surveyed the railroad's right-of-way and townsite, or Mrs. Marie Van Alstyne, a shareholder in the railroad company; its entry on Mantua names the shareholder, a Houston stockholder. The post office opened in 1873. By incorporation in 1890 the town had about 400 people, two gristmills, a flour mill, a newspaper and a college.

What the plaque says

First Christian Church The predecessor of this church, the First Disciples of Christ congregation in Texas, was founded during the winter of 1841-1842 at McKinney's Landing in Bowie County near the Texas-Arkansas border. Collin McKinney, pioneer settler and signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence, was the leader of the Bowie County congregation, which had worshipped informally since 1831. Between 1844 and 1846 the group moved to Liberty (later called "Mantua"), three miles southwest of here. In 1846 under McKinney and J. B. Wilmeth, the congregation was reorganized as the "Liberty Church" with eighteen members. In 1854, the First Mantua Christian Church was built. In this early structure a rail in the center aisle separated men from women. No offering plate was passed; donations were placed on the communion table. Members constructed their own "hymn books," which doubled as souvenir and recipe books. Founders of churches in many cities, including Galveston, Sherman, and Glen Rose, were members of the Mantua Church. In 1887 the Mantua Group organized the church on this site in the infant town of Van Alstyne, located on the Houston & Texas Central Railroad. In 1891 the Mantua and Van Alstyne churches joined memberships. (1968)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Heard Natural Science Museum & Wildlife Sanctuary — 18 mi
  A 289-acre sanctuary in McKinney that Bessie Heard founded at the age of 80, with five habitats, a 50-acre wetland and 6.5 miles of trails.
• 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.
• Sam Rayburn House State Historic Site — 23 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.
• Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge — 24 mi
  A 1946 refuge on the Big Mineral Arm of Lake Texoma, laid over land bought for Denison Dam and the site of the vanished railroad town of Hagerman, now a winter stop for geese.

More markers nearby

• First United Methodist Church of Van Alstyne — steps away
• Howe Lodge No. 430, A. F. & A.M. — steps away
• Fifrty Feet North to Grave of Collin McKinney — 0.4 mi
• Site of Campus of Old Columbia College — 0.4 mi