First Presbyterian Church — Winnsboro  8-5-06

On April 30th of this year, the First Presbyterian Church of Winnsboro celebrated their 135th anniversary. Actually, the church was organized ten years earlier in Webster.

Early settlers in homes scattered across this area experienced dusty, muddy travel over dirt roads on horseback, on foot or in buggies and wagons. Communication, by word of mouth, by mail or by messenger, was slow.

The Reverend John Becton organized a Presbyterian church in Kilgore in 1850. The next year, the presbytery of East Texas was formed with 11 widely separated churches.

The Reverend E.H. Green organized the Greenhill Church near Mt. pleasant in 1860.   The next year, in 1861, he came to the thriving community of Webster, three miles southwest of Winnsboro, to form a Presbyterian congregation.

However, two factors caused Webster and its population to decline rapidly: severe Civil War conditions and the decision to build a railroad route through Winnsboro.

On April 30th, 1871, the Presbyterian Church at Winnsboro was organized by the Rev. R.E. Sherill with 11 members – several of whom had been in the Webster congregation.

In recording the membership of the newly organized church, it is interesting that women of the era often used only initials for their given names.

Included on an early roll are the following names with some added explanations: James Pitts Anderson and wife, Louisa Lemon Anderson; Thomas Templeton and E.C. Templeton (Elvira Caroline); R.C. Huie and Elizabeth Huie; J.M. Patterson and M.E. Patterson; Leon Harrington; M.E. Young; James Patterson; E.A. McGee (Eliza Ann – sister of Thomas Templeton); M.J. Vannoy (Margaret Jane – sister of Thomas Templeton); H.E. Davis; M.G. Gibson; Becton M. Templeton (son of Thomas and Elvira) and Cora Vannoy (daughter of Margaret Jane).

Ms. Nancy Cook, listed in historical records as an early Winnsboro philanthropist, donated land to persuade the railroad to build through Winnsboro, and donated building sites for the early Winnsboro churches.

The Presbyterians were the first group to build on present-day Church Street bear the city cemetery. Other denominations were invited to use the facility which was a frame structure of pine painted white. According to the record, it had a bell tower with a bell that was “rung once for preaching services and twice for funerals.”

In 1907, a location on East Myrtle Street at Chestnut Street, was purchased. The building on Church Street was sold, moved, and used as part of the Tom Wyatt residence at 404 West Pine Street.

The present building was actually a school known as the Henry Grady College and built on land across the street by a Mr. Stivers for his children and their friends. When the school closed after a few years, the building was cut into sections which were moved to the new site on log rollers pulled by mules. When the sections were reassembled and reworked into a building, 19 members worshipped in this sanctuary.

An elder, John McMillan, gave the stained glass windows above the center windows – east, west and north – and the Cross and Crown window above the pulpit area.

After the move across town in 1907, a regular Sunday school was scheduled and a Ladies Aid Society was organized. The ladies studied the Bible and earned money by making and selling products – bonnets, aprons, pies, cakes and bars of soap. With the money they earned, they purchased the three pulpit chairs and the main pulpit lectern still used today.

Years later, the beautiful Communion Table was given in memory of their mother by three sisters – Mrs. Vivian Ludlam, Mrs. Kate Hinckley, and Mrs. Daisy Hendricks.

When the Rev. C.P. Owen moved to Sulphur Springs in 1933 he preached his morning service there, an afternoon service in Winnsboro and an evening service at Pittsburg. For pattern of service continued for nearly two decades with subsequent preachers.

New families – the Ludlams, the Hinckleys, the Poes, the Bynum Moores, the Carsons, the Saxons – added strength to the small congregation of the Lindseys, Reids, Dicksons and Meltons.

After the tenure of Dr. J. Ludwell Davis came an energetic, dynamic Dutch preacher, Anton J. Van Puffelen, who felt the need to provide classroom space to accommodate the increasing number of children.

About 1943, Van Puffelen, with a minimum of help, built a partition across the west area of the sanctuary and the enclosed part was divided into three rooms for children’s classes. The pulpit was placed in front of the partition and the pews faced westward.

A few years later, a building to provide space for various activities was constructed south of the church. It has been remodeled with a large addition for offices and a library. It is known as the Reid Building in memory of Louise and Whitson Reid.

In 1954 a schedule change was made when the congregation shared the Rev. H.H. Hunter with the Bethsada congregation near Lindale, and later with the Pittsburg Church. The Rev. Jimmy Dan Sanders and the rev. Jim Shepherd followed as pastors. In 1975, the Rev. H.P. Hosey was called to serve the two congregations, and in 1978, he became pastor of the Winnsboro church alone. Reverend Peggy Rounseville was called as pastor in February of 1998.

Extensive renovation of the main building took place in the year 2000. The partition behind the pulpit was removed and the pulpit and the interior placement of the pews was returned to the original configuration. New paint, carpet and blinds, some new light fixtures, new air conditioning and a speaker system helped to modernize both the appearance of the church and its use.

On May 20th, 1984, a Texas Historical Marker was placed near the front entrance. Listing in the Registry of American Reformed Historical Sites, No. 443, was received in 2002 and a plaque from the Presbyterian Historical Society was placed in the narthex.

Significant financial help has been provided to charities and college scholarships, as well as to this church, from the estate of Whitson and Louise Reid. Neither sibling married and each lived frugally. Whitson, an oil field pumper, and Louise, an elementary teacher, wanted the church and various organizations to benefit from their lives of conservatism. The local Reid Foundation committee set up guidelines for funding selected projects, with management help enlisted from the Texas Presbyterian Foundation.