First Presbyterian Church of West

The town of West grew from the railroad. The Handbook of Texas says the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad came through in 1881, and the town took the name of Thomas M. West, who owned the quarter section it stood on. West opened a store in 1883, a hotel in 1889 and a bank in 1893, and the town incorporated in 1892. Newspapers included the West Crescent, the West News and the West Times. Allen's Academy was its first school. After 1900 Czech and German newcomers arrived in large numbers.

What the plaque says

First Presbyterian Church of West The Rev. D.C. Kinnard began the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in 1875. The first building on this site was erected in 1883. Walter Bennett Martin constructed the present building in 1901. Czechs organized a Presbyterian church in 1911 and held separate services in their own language. In 1921 the Cumberland Presbyterian Church became the Presbyterian Church, U.S.A. The Czechs united with the congregation in 1953. St. Peter's United Church of Christ merged with fellowship in 1966 to form first United Church of West. (1979)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Waco Mammoth National Monument — 14 mi
  A bone bed on the Bosque River where a nursery herd of at least 19 Columbian mammoths was trapped and drowned by floodwater 65,000 to 72,000 years ago, left in place under a dig shelter.
• Hill County Courthouse — 15 mi
  Wesley C. Dodson's limestone Second Empire courthouse of 1890 on the Hillsboro square, gutted by fire on New Year's Day 1993 and rededicated in 1999 after a rebuilding that two Willie Nelson concerts helped pay for.
• Waco Suspension Bridge — 17 mi
  A Brazos crossing opened in January 1870 as the longest single-span suspension bridge west of the Mississippi, tolled until 1889, closed to vehicles in 1971 and now walked.
• Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum — 17 mi
  The official state repository of Texas Ranger memorabilia, opened in 1968 in Fort Fisher Park on the Brazos, named for a Ranger post of 1837 whose site no one has located.

More markers nearby

• West — steps away
• Church of the Assumption — 0.2 mi
• The Crash at Crush — 0.2 mi
• First Baptist Church of West — 0.3 mi