The beginnings of a Reform Jewish Community in Fort Worth date to 1879, when the Hebrew Benevolent Society opened a Sabbath School, and early services were held in homes. About 1900, under the leadership of Henry Gernsbacher (1858-1936), enthusiasm began to grow,and in 1902 a call was issued in the area for the organization of a formal congregation.

Forty-three people gathered to found the Beth-el Congregation, and Sam Levy (1856-1927) was elected president. The Fort Worth section of the National Counsel of Jewish Women donated funds to bring a Rabbi to conduct High Holy Days services. The early days of the congregation were difficult ones, with services being held sporadically. For a time, student Rabbis from Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati conducted services for High Holy Days.

In 1904 a Rabbi was hired, and the congregation met in rented quarters. A lot was bought on the corner of Fifth and Taylor streets in 1907, and a Temple was built in 1908. By 1919 the congregation had outgrown the buildings and a new Temple was built on this site. Soon after a 25th Anniversary Celebration, the temple was destroyed by fire on August 29, 1946. Beth-El Temple was rebuilt, and dedicated on January 7, 1949.

Set aside by deed in 1898 as a permanent site for celebrating June 19th -- the anniversary of the 1865 emancipation of slaves in Texas. It was 2.5 miles south of this site that slaves of this area first heard their freedom announced.

Limestone County in the 1860's -- era of initial celebrations here -- had many able Negro leaders. It sent to the Texas Constitutional Convention of 1866 one of its Negro citizens, Ralph Long. From among people who lived in this locality at the time of emancipation came Negro legislators Giles Cotton, Dave Medlock and Sheppard Mullins.

Even before land was dedicated for the park here, this was site of annual celebration on June 19th. For many years the honorable Ralph Long was the featured orator, speaking at times from bed of a wagon parked in the shade. As many as 20,000 often gathered for the occasion. On July 7, 1912, the 19th of June Organization was chartered, to administer the park and perpetuate regional history.

The Negro people of Texas have shown outstanding initiative in fields of civic leadership, education, culture and business. In 1860 they numbered 187,921; in 1960 there were 1,187,125 Negros in the State.

According to local history, Christoval Methodists, Baptists, and Cumberland Presbyterians assembled for worship services in the Cumberland Presbyterian Church building before 1910. Circuit riders from the three denominations preached on alternate Sundays. Although Baptists built their own structure in 1910, area Methodists continued to worship with Cumberland Presbyterians for many years. The records of the Christoval Methodist congregation date from 1923. In 1926, with the Rev. J.E. Young as pastor, the Methodists erected and occupied a red brick structure at the corner of Second and McKee streets. Fundraising projects at several Fourth of July celebrations helped to defray the cost of the building loan. In early years church women organized the Women's Missionary Society. Their first major project was to raise money for the Methodist Orphans' Home. A Men's Nondenominational Sunday School class was established in 1951. A parsonage was built in 1947 at a cost of $1,200; an educational building was erected in 1956. Further additions and renovations were made as needed, including the construction of three classrooms given in memory of Clarice Atkins McMillan in 1983. Former pastors and longtime members were honored at a church homecoming in 1978 and a 75th anniversary celebration in 1998. With continuing activities of worship and community service including an annual barbecue hosted by the Men's Nondenominational Sunday School class, the Christoval United Methodist Church carries on in the traditions of its founders.

This noble edifice has housed faculty and students of this high school since 1916. Within its halls and classrooms the lives and careers of thousands of young El Pasoans have been molded well, thereby enabling them to take their proper places in the life stream of this nation. They have supported and contributed to our country's fine ideals and principles in commerce, government, and the professions, and have gloriously defended them upon the battlefields of war. On the eve of this golden anniversary of service, we express to them all our deep gratitude for their shining exemplification of good citizenship which will provide those who follow with a heritage enduring strength and inspiration.

Celebrations of "Juneteenth"--the anniversary of the June 19, 1865 emancipation of Texas slaves--were first held in homes and churches. Later, festivities took place outdoors. By 1915, Huntsville blacks, led by former slave Jane Ward (d.1933), had moved the annual observance to this site, known as Emancipation Park. Dave Williams, another former slave, organized the Band and Park Association to raise the down payment on the property. In 1933, R.A. Josey, a white businessman, completed purchase of the land for use by the black community. The 9.04 acre site became a city park in 1963.

This church traces its origins to 1904 when nine charter members led by the Rev. Gottlieb Langner organized a congregation in Knippa. Services were held in the homes of its members, who were served by area pastors and traveling missionaries. George Knippa, for whom the town was named and a charter member of the church, died in 1905. The land he donated in his will to be used for a Lutheran Church was exchanged for this church site. A wooden church with a 67-foot bell tower was built in 1910. Pastor Langner became the first full-time pastor in 1912, organizing a Sunday School and choir. The German-speaking congregation conducted its services in German. During World War I, a Uvalde County resolution prohibited the use of the German language. Challenged and appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1918, the court ruled it was a matter for the church to decide. German was spoken in church until 1942. A new sanctuary was constructed for the growing congregation, and was dedicated on the 50th anniversary of the church's founding in 1954. A new parsonage, annex and fellowship hall were later added. This church continues to serve its membership and the community as it has for more than 90 years.

Most of the "Old Three Hundred" settlers in Stephen F. Austin's first Texas Colony in the early 1820s came from the United States and were proud of their Anglo-America Heritage. Austin discouraged any display of American loyalties which might anger the Mexican authorities or violate colonization laws. Many customs persisted, however, including observance of July Fourth as American Independence Day. On July 4, 1826, settlers around Beason's Crossing, nucleus of the present town of Columbus, planned a barbecue to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the signing of the American Declaration of Independence. No doubt, many colonists traveled long distances for this important gathering.

West of the Colorado River in Green DeWittt's Colony, a small group set out from Gonzales on July 2 to attend the barbecue at Beason's. While camped for the night, they were attacked by Indians but managed to escape. Returning to Gonzales, they found their homes plundered and one man killed. The other settlers were visiting at a nearby cabin and escaped the Indian raid. The survivors then proceeded to the safety of older settlements along the the Colorado.

Formally organized in 1848 in the small community known as "Fireman's Hill" (formerly "Coonskin"), Laurel Hill Baptist Church began with four members and the Rev. Joseph Warner Dossey Creath as its first pastor. The Rev. Mr. Creath came to Texas as a missionary for the Domestic Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention and later became a prominent figure among Texas Baptists.

By 1850 the settlement was known as "Cold Springs." In 1853 several church members participated in the formation of an educational institution known as the Cold Springs Female College or Institute. Recognized as one of the early educational efforts of Texas Baptists, the school flourished for a short time.

General James B. Davis (1790-1859), a friend of General Sam Houston and former adjutant general of the Republic of Texas Army, donated land for a church building, baptismal pool and cemetery. A small building was erected across from the cemetery in 1855. The Cold Springs Male and Female Academy, as it was called by 1861, closed with the advent of the Civil War.

The church building served on that site until a fire ravaged the San Jacinto County Courthouse in 1915. By 1918 a new courthouse had been completed nearby. Homes, businesses and the Laurel Hill Baptist Church were moved to the new site. The church was destroyed by fire in 1950; a new structure built that same year was renamed First Baptist Church of Coldspring. Buildings were added to the church complex as necessary.

The first Baptist Church of Coldspring continues a tradition of worship and service established by its founders. The congregation celebrated its 150th anniversary in 1998.

Originally a small congregation in a rural setting, this church has evolved through a continuous succession of expansions into a leading suburban church serving southwestern Tarrant County. The earliest record mentioning the church dates to 1896, the year of its establishment and admission into the Tarrant County Baptist Association. The Rev. G.W. Green served as pastor of the original 27-member congregation.

In 1899 the church began services in a newly erected auditorium, built on a town lot on Tarrant Street purchased two years earlier. Expansion needs caused by steady growth in the Sunday School program were satisfied temporarily with the interior remodeling of an army barrack donated to the church in 1947 and the erection of a new sanctuary in 1951.

The lack of room for additional facilities at its original Tarrant Street location resulted in the acquisition of this 9.3-acre site in 1974 and dedication of a new sanctuary four years later. The church undertook a much publicized relocation of its 2-story education building, constructed in 1966, from Tarrant Street to this location in 1980. In 1991 the congregation, which numbered more than one thousand members, celebrated its 95th Anniversary.

The Baptist Church of Hardin was organized in 1860 with Pastor D.W. Jordan. When the railroad bypassed Hardin (then the county seat) in 1881, area residents began moving to nearby Kountze. Hardin Baptists are believed to have followed, probably meeting in a multi-denominational building known as the first house of worship in Kountze erected in 1887. Southern Baptist Convention records list the origin of the Baptist Church of Kountze in 1890; the congregation declared itself in 1893 under Pastor J.W. Rhodes. In 1908 a loan from the Southern Baptist Convention to the First Baptist Church of Kountze facilitated the erection of a frame structure on Redwood Street. It was located two blocks from the original building, which had become the Methodist Church.

In 1951 fundraising and planning began for a new brick building, dedicated in 1955. By 1979, a two-story wing was added; in the 1980s the church library and sanctuary were expanded and new youth programs established. The First Baptist Church of Kountze marked its 100th anniversary with a celebration lasting from the spring of 1990 to January of 1993. With such developments as a new fellowship hall added in 1997, the church continues to serve the community.