Church History

  • Church History

    The Presbyterian Church

    PRESBYTERIANS The Presbyterian Church has maintained a presence in Oklahoma for more than 180 years. Beginning in the early 1800s the church developed foreign missions and evangelistic enterprises with Native tribes that were located in the southeastern United States. Most of this work was conducted under the auspices of the American Board of Commissioners of Foreign Missions (ABCFM), an organization composed of both Congregationalists and Presbyterians. The first organized missionary effort in the region that is now Oklahoma was Union Mission, a project of the United Foreign Mission Society, which included Presbyterians. Organized by Rev. Epaphras Chapman for the Osage Indians in 1820, Union was built in Mayes County. There,…