Kerens Presbyterian Church

Wadeville, where this congregation began, was one of the county's earliest settlements, the Handbook of Texas says. About 1846 J. T. Parsons opened a store on Rush Creek, and the place was Parsons' Trading Post. David Sherrill built a gin around 1856, and a post office opened in the store in 1861. After Parsons died in 1871 the office moved to Mack Wade's store and the community took Wade's name. Around 1880 it had 152 people, a school, a Masonic lodge and a Presbyterian church. The railroad passed it by in 1881, and merchants moved to Kerens.

What the plaque says

Kerens Presbyterian Church This congregation originated in the community of Wadeville (3 mi. S), where a Cumberland Presbyterian Church was organized at the home of Noble Wade (1808-1878) on June 5, 1869. The first church building also served as a school and Masonic Lodge hall. In 1881, when Kerens was founded along the railroad, the congregation purchased this lot and completed a church building in 1883. They shared this facility with the Baptists and the Methodists for several years. Four members of this church have entered full-time Christian ministry. (1985)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Petroleum Industry Park — 14 mi
  The pipes and drilling tower mark where a city water well struck oil on June 9, 1894, the start of the first Texas field to produce oil and gas in important quantities.
• Blind Lemon Memorial Cemetery — 27 mi
  The Freestone County grave of the Texas blues singer Blind Lemon Jefferson, who recorded for Paramount in Chicago from 1926 and died there in December 1929.

More markers nearby

• Kerens — 0.2 mi
• Josiah Martin Daniel — 0.2 mi
• Bazette Baptist Church and Cemetery — 4.2 mi
• Prairie Point Church and Cemetery — 5.2 mi