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Note from Tres Rios editor, Theresa Wright: During the Oct. presbytery meeting of Tres Rios, Bob Reno, moderator of the Committee on Ministry presented a resolution celebrating the life and ministry of First Presbyterian,Barstow, Texas, as follows:

As with many congregations, the life and ministry of First Presbyterian Church, Barstow, Texas, cannot be separated from the life of the community in which it was located.

Looking at their heydays, it would not be an exaggeration to say that First Presbyterian Church was a quintessential small church, located in a quintessential small West Texas American town.

By this point in the twenty-first century, we have grown accustomed to the concept of “planned communities,” especially in such sunny states in Florida and Arizona. However, it may be surprising to learn that Barstow, Texas, founded in 1892, was essentially a planned community in its own right. The Texas and Pacific Railroad had reached what was to become Barstow, in Ward County, in 1881. In 1892, an easterner arrived: Mr. George E. Barstow from Rhode Island, by way of New York.

Mr. Barstow was an expert in agricultural irrigation, and he had determined that water from the Pecos River could be used to support farming. The Barstow Improvement Company was founded, canals were built, and train loads of visitors from the east were brought to see the land. Grapes, peaches, pears, and melons were the major crops. At the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair, Barstow grapes won a silver medal. Barstow was named the seat of Ward County and a fine new courthouse was built of the same red brick used in the construction of the Presbyterian Church. By 1910, Barstow could boast a population of 1,219.

But something else happened back in 1904.

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