First Presbyterian Church of Kingsville

Henrietta King, who gave this congregation its land, was a missionary's daughter. Her father, Hiram Chamberlain, a Vermonter trained at Middlebury College and Andover, helped found the American Home Missionary Society and spent twenty years in Missouri pulpits, editing the Herald of Religious Liberty in St. Louis. He broke with the society in 1839, apparently over its growing support of abolition. In 1850 he organized the First Presbyterian Church of Brownsville, the first Protestant church on the lower Rio Grande, and in 1854 he and Melinda Rankin opened the Rio Grande Female Institute.

What the plaque says

First Presbyterian Church of Kingsville Tradition holds that Presbyterians in Kingsville first held services under mesquite trees before formally organizing on January 8, 1905. That day, the Rev. A.H.P. McCurdy led several men and women in services at the Kingsville Lumber Company. Henrietta King and the Kleberg Town and Improvement Company donated land at this site to the congregation, which dedicated its first sanctuary in April 1906. The congregation built its present sanctuary in 1956. Today, the church remains a significant part of Kingsville's religious and social community by sharing in ecumenical endeavors with other churches. (2006)

Where it stands

More markers nearby

• Uriah Lott — steps away
• Texas A&M University-Kingsville — 0.7 mi
• Kleberg County — 1.5 mi
• The King Ranch — 1.6 mi