Button Memorial United Methodist Church
Denton, Denton County, Texas
Marker Inscription
The Rev. William E. Bates, a native of Virginia, established the Methodist congregation at Little Elm in 1853. Members shared a meetinghouse with other denominations at John House Springs and in 1916 built their own facility. In the 1950s, the church moved to make way for construction of Lewisville Lake. In 1962, a descendant of early Little Elm settlers and church members George and Sarah Button donated funds for a new sanctuary; members renamed the church in honor of the Button family. Throughout its history, the church has been active in its community, offering a variety of services and programs to members and area residents. (2006)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
When the Rev. William E. Bates gathered a Methodist congregation at Little Elm in 1853, north Texas was still thinly settled prairie, and worshippers made do with a shared meetinghouse before raising their own in 1916. The building's story took an unusual turn in the 1950s, when the rising waters of the new Lewisville Lake forced the whole church to relocate. A 1962 gift from a descendant of the pioneer Button family funded a fresh sanctuary and gave the congregation its present name.
Why it matters
The church's forced move for a federal reservoir captures how mid-century water and flood-control projects reshaped countless small Texas communities, relocating even their churchyards.
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Related people
- · Rev. William E. Bates
- · George Button
- · Sarah Button
Related events
- · Construction of Lewisville Lake
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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Little Elm sits on land from the Peters Colony, an empresario grant the Republic of Texas awarded in 1841 to lure settlers to its northern frontier. Among the first were John and Delilah King, who came from North Carolina in 1844; their son "Kit" King helped organize the area's first mail service and became postmaster when the Little Elm post office opened in 1852. Formed from a cluster of small settlements, the town might have faded—but the creation of Lake Dallas in the 1920s and Lake Lewisville in the 1950s, plus nearby Dallas–Fort Worth, drove it to grow and incorporate in 1966.
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