We are 100 years old as of 2017. A history of our congregation has been put in book form. It is 400 exciting pages covering the first thirty years.
Nearly all of our original members came from families rich in the Restoration Movement. They came here from Oklahoma and Texas, then from Arkansas and Missouri.
Casa Grande, a mining town in Arizona, began mostly as a tent city. The first meeting place of the church of Christ in the city was also a tent.
The city began with one street—Main Street—across from the railroad tracks. The city of Casa Grand began in 1912 because of silver and gold deposits, along with other minerals. The church of Christ began in 1917, five years later, because of the city. Twenty years after the church of Christ began, it had 200 members. Both were here to stay.
Here are the first members:
- 1917 – The Darters and Sharps
- 1918 – The Griffiths
- 1919 – The Preuitts
- 1920 – The McNatts
- 1921 – The Fritzingers and Tindalls
- 1922 – The Benders
- 1926 – The Tacketts
- 1927 – The Germans
- 1928 – The Amblers and Wilsons
- 1929 – The Sheltons and Sanders’s
- 1930 – The Hendrix’s
- 1931 – The Fosters and Eastridges
- 1932 – The Foxes
- 1933 – The Whites, Sweets, and Williams’s
- 1934 – The Whiteheads
- 1935 – The Frasers
- 1936 – The Prices, Mastersons/Halls, Gebharts, Hills, Wittens
- 1937 – The Hons, Coyles, Higgins’s, Wuertz’s
- 1938 – The Wallers, Turners, Fegusons
- 1939 – The Taylors
- 1940 – The Grubbs’s and Bentles
- 1941 – The Crows, Barnes’s, Wilsons, Jones’s
- 1943 – The Wilsons and Chisums
- 1944 – The Forsheys, Brysons, an Goffs
- 1945 – The Carters and Kinsers
- 1946 – The Lamberts, Brumages, and Owens’s
- 1947 – The Lowes and Caruths
Our first full-time preacher was Adrian Hon. His parents had taken him to Japan as missionaries around 1910 when there was still a bounty on the heads of Christians. His ancestors were preachers back 100 years before.
Adrian’s wife’s family ~ the Cartrights ~ came to Phoenix in the 1800s and began the first non-denominational church of Christ in Arizona.
THIS IS AN OPEN INVITATION TO ANY DESCENDANT OR ANYONE IN OUR COMMUNITY TO COME HELP US CELEBRATE NEXT WEEKEND.
Everyone, come home! Come home to the church your parents and grandparents and great grandparents worshiped with. After 100 years, we have held on to their legacy. We think they would be proud of us. Don’t you?
If you cannot come, leave your congratulations for the members below. We would love to hear from you.