First Church Bell

The congregation that kept the bell belonged to a church that kept dividing and reuniting. The Handbook of Texas traces it: in 1861 Texas Presbyterians joined the Presbyterian Church in the Confederate States, and from 1865 most belonged to the Southern Presbyterian Church, while some congregations returned to the Northern body in 1867. Most Cumberland Presbyterians in Texas joined the Northern church in 1906, and in 1983 the Northern and Southern branches finally merged as the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), with about 150,000 Texas members by 1993.

What the plaque says

Bought in 1890 and placed in old Presbyterian Church, used by several faiths. Was first church bell in Canadian, Hemphill County. Congregation held suppers and other projects to repay bank loan on bell. Later bell was moved to new Presbyterian Church and still is used today. (1967)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• The Citadelle Art Museum — steps away
  A 1910 Baptist church saved from demolition in 1977, made into a family home filled with art, and given to Canadian in 2009 as one of the Panhandle's few art museums.
• River Valley Pioneer Museum — 0.3 mi
  The Hemphill County museum in Canadian, a Santa Fe division town of 1887 on the river breaks that held one of the first commercial rodeos in Texas and voted itself dry in 1903.
• Canadian River Wagon Bridge — 1.3 mi
  The longest pin-connected bridge in Texas, 3,255 feet of Parker trusses across the Canadian River at Canadian, built for wagons in 1916 and reopened as a footpath in 2000.
• Gene Howe Wildlife Management Area — 5.1 mi
  Five thousand acres of sand sage and cottonwood bottomland along the Canadian River east of Canadian, bought by the state in 1950 for wildlife research and open to walkers with a permit.

More markers nearby

• First Baptist Church of Canadian — steps away
• R. Dick Bussell — steps away
• John Hemphill — steps away
• Mary B. Isaacs — steps away