Bettie Methodist Church
Bettie, Upshur County, Texas
Marker Inscription
This congregation was organized and a sanctuary built at this site in 1892 principally through the efforts of brothers Jeff and Hillard Parish. According to local tradition, the sanctuary (one of the first buildings in Bettie) probably replaced the abandoned or disbanded Parish Chapel Methodist Church which was located about two miles west of here. In addition to religious services, the community's first school and popular singing and music lessons were held in the sanctuary for several decades after its completion. This congregation continues to serve the community.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Organized in 1892 largely through the efforts of brothers Jeff and Hillard Parish, this Methodist congregation built one of Bettie's first structures, likely succeeding an earlier Parish Chapel congregation nearby. For decades the sanctuary doubled as the community's first school and a place for singing and music lessons. The congregation still serves the community today.
Why it matters
Like countless rural churches, it shows how a single frontier sanctuary served as the spiritual, educational, and social heart of a small Texas settlement.
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Related people
- · Jeff Parish
- · Hillard Parish
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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First Baptist Church of Gilmer
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This Baptist congregation began in a log cabin in 1846, the year Texas joined the Union, as the Gilmer Missionary Baptist Church of Christ. Over the following decades it grew from a couple dozen members into hundreds, erecting successive buildings, adding a Sunday School and a Ladies Aid Society, and calling its first full-time pastor in 1904. Renamed First Baptist Church of Gilmer in 1929, it has grown alongside its Upshur County town ever since.
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