First Presbyterian Church, U. S. of Troup

Troup began as a railroad junction. The Handbook of Texas says the town was platted in 1872 where a Houston and Great Northern line split, one branch to Tyler and the main line to Longview, and the first lot sold within five days of the January 1873 post office. That office was called Zavala until it became Troup in 1877. The Rev. W. W. Brimm preached the first sermon in 1873, and eight Presbyterians finished a temporary building that September, sharing it with Dixie Lodge No. 272 until their new church of 1909. Troup had four churches by 1892.

What the plaque says

First Presbyterian Church, U. S. of Troup The Rev. W. W. Brimm of Tyler began conducting Presbyterian worship services in this area in 1873, soon after the town of Troup was platted along a line of the Houston and Great Northern Railroad. Under his direction, this church was organized that same year with eight charter members. The first ruling elder was Colonel Thomas W. Bell (1802-1876), who moved to Texas from Tennessee in 1849. After settling in Canton, now Omen, where he owned a hotel, he moved to Troup. A charter member of the First Presbyterian Church, he was instrumental in the early development of the congregation. Services were moved to this site from a temporary sanctuary in 1876, when trustees acquired the land from the railroad company. A building here served the congregation until 1908-09, when a new structure was completed. During construction of the facility, services were held in the local Masonic Lodge Hall. For over a century the First Presbyterian Church, U. S. of Troup has been active in the development of the community. Many pioneer area settlers and early civic leaders were members here. Part-time pastors have included several seminary students who later became prominent Presbyterian leaders. (1981)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• New London Museum and Cenotaph — 12 mi
  A volunteer-run museum beside the pink granite cenotaph for the March 1937 school gas explosion, holding a model of the school, a blackboard from that day and an odorizer device.
• Goodman-LeGrand House and Museum — 18 mi
  A Tyler house begun in 1859 as four rooms, enlarged by the Goodman family over 73 years, and left to the city in 1939 with its furnishings, in a garden that fills a city block.
• Tyler Rose Garden and Rose Museum — 18 mi
  More than 38,000 rose bushes of about 600 cultivars in a free city garden, beside a museum of the Texas Rose Festival, which began in 1933, and of the rose industry.
• Camp Ford Historic Park — 20 mi
  A free county park north of Tyler on the site of the largest Confederate prison camp west of the Mississippi, with a kiosk, an interpretive trail and a historical society museum downtown.

More markers nearby

• Knoxville — 3.7 mi
• Henry's Chapel United Methodist Church — 4.9 mi
• Omen (Canton) Community — 5.1 mi
• Robert Graves Stadler — 7.0 mi