Forest Grove Christian Church

The church kept a roll, and the roll shows a neighborhood. A marker application records a July 23, 1858 reaffirmation of faith with Elder J. B. Wilmeth as organizing minister, and an 1875 membership of some fifty names, among them Fitzhughs, Coffeys, Wetsels and Spurgins. Aaron Snider, a pillar of the church who served in Fitzhugh's Confederate company, ran a mill and cotton gin at Forest Grove driven by two large steers. Peter and Sarah Wetsel's home near Allen was an early stage stop. The last service in the church was held on April 8, 1984.

What the plaque says

Forest Grove Christian Church This church traces its origin to informal prayer meetings held in 1847 at the home of William and Mary (Syndusky) Snider. American revolutionary war veterans and original settlers of the Peters Colony are counted among the early members of the congregation. John M. McKinney, Jr. and J. Ben Faulkner served as the first ministers of the church. All church structures have occupied this site adjoining historic Fitzhugh Cemetery which has graves dating to 1852. Although services ended in 1984 church buildings remain the site of various community programs and events. (1992) Incise on back: In Memory of Fred McKinney

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Heard Natural Science Museum & Wildlife Sanctuary — 2.7 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.
• Rockwall County Historical Foundation & Museum — 16 mi
  A small museum in Harry Myers Park that keeps the evidence on Rockwall's rock wall, sandstone dikes that geologists call natural and folk tales call built.
• Fair Park — 25 mi
  The State Fair of Texas grounds since 1886, where the 1936 Texas Centennial Exposition left one of the country's greatest concentrations of Art Deco exposition buildings.
• African American Museum, Dallas — 25 mi
  Founded in 1974 at Bishop College, a free Fair Park museum holding the Sepia photograph archive, African art and A. Maceo Smith's papers, and the story of the Hall of Negro Life.

More markers nearby

• Lovejoy School — 0.6 mi
• John Myers McKinney — 1.8 mi
• Allen Water Station — 3.5 mi
• Allen — 3.5 mi