In 1853, disciples in the area around Rockett and Brushy Creek, 8 miles northwest, established a church called "Liberty-Sylvania." Members of that congregation were instrumental in forming new churches in Corinth, Ferris, Palmer, and Waxahachie. In 1868, Robert "Uncle Bob" Smith and his wife Lavisa, members of the church at Rockett, moved their family to Palmer, and with their help the First Christian Church of Palmer was organized that same year. A one-room schoolhouse served as its first meeting place. In 1880, representatives of the town's Baptist, Christian, and Cumberland Presbyterian churches signed an agreement to construct a community church building. Completed later that year on Dallas Street, the Palmer Union Church sanctuary was used by all three congregations, with each church assigned a specific Sunday of every month for services. In 1898, members of the First Christian Church constructed their own sanctuary at the intersection of Dallas and Jefferson Streets. The congregation moved to its present site in 1940, when the current brick edifice was completed, and the church bell still in use came from the Palmer Union Church building.