The first protestant to preach on Texas soil, Reverend Sumner Bacon, always carried his Bible and a loaded revolver. The Presbyterian missionary set out from Arkansas packing Bibles in 1828, intent on breaking the law. In Texas, the Mexican government forbade worship of any religion that was not Catholic. He preached and distributed Bibles, ignoring Mexican law.
When robbed as he traveled on horseback, Bacon invited the bandits to pray with him, which convinced them to change their wicked ways.
After Texas won independence from Mexico, Reverends Mitchell Smith and Amos Roark met with Sumner Bacon at his home, November 27, 1837, to establish the Texas Presbytery. The barriers against the non-Catholic religion lifted, they could now openly preach their religion.
Reverend Bacon is credited as the “first resident Protestant evangelist to maintain a continuous ministry in the new territory.”
The picture is from an article in the Cleburne Times Review, April 19, 2010, that story and History of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church by Benjamin Wilburn Mc Donnold, D.D., LLD were my source of information.