In 1888, Union Gospel Mission was established to coordinate the relief efforts of local churches to aid poor and dispossessed. The Mission has now been serving the homeless in Fort Worth and Tarrant County for over 120 years. The Cumberland Presbyterian Church at Fifth and Taylor Streets in Fort Worth served as the first home of the Union Gospel Mission. Known as the Bethel Mission, it coordinated the relief activities of Fort Worth Churches, maintained a cooperative welfare department, and established a non-sectarian downtown church.
From the very beginning, the Mission recognized the need for a close working relationship between area churches and the Mission, which did not compete with the churches but served as an auxiliary to them in order to reach "the rabble of the city and the outcasts in the slum districts." In 1889, Bethel Mission became Union Gospel Mission.
Mr. H. W. Stone, first Secretary of the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA), and Warren Collins, owner of Collins Art Company, were among the small group of ministers and businessmen instrumental in founding the Mission. Mr. Collins served as the first superintendent.
Edward Henry Manwarring, a student at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, recorded the earliest known history of the Mission as his thesis for a Master of Theology degree. Personal interviews served as the core of his work; therefore, he captured an important era in the Mission's history. Manwarring discovered that the YMCA influenced the Mission's focus, primarily because most of the staff at the Mission were also active in the YMCA. He wrote, "Mr. Stone was interested in the welfare of humanity, especially from an evangelistic point of view. . . . The primal idea of the Mission was evangelistic."
