Cedar Bayou United Methodist Church
Baytown, Harris County, Texas
Marker Inscription
This congregation was organized in 1844 at the home of early settler Hance Baker, under the direction of the Rev. robert Alexander, a noted Methodist missionary during Texas' frontier period. with twenty-seven members by its second meeting, the church held worship services in Baker's home until a log sanctuary was built near this site sometime after 1847. The Rev. L. S. Friend served as first pastor of the church, which originally was called Alexander Chapel for its founder. The church building became a gathering place for the small Cedar Bayou community, and camp meetings were held on the grounds each summer. In 1853, the only Sunday School in the district was held here, and the congregation's emphasis on Christian education has continued over the years. By the early 1900s the church had begun providing neighboring communities with Sunday School teachers and literature. Cedar Bayou United Methodist Church continues to reflect the ideals and traditions of its founders. With historic ties to Texas' years an an independent republic and to the beginning of Methodism in the state, it remains a significant element in the area's heritage.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
This Methodist congregation took shape in 1844, when Texas was still an independent republic, gathering first in the home of an early settler under a traveling frontier missionary. Within a few years its worshipers raised a log sanctuary and made the church a hub of the small Cedar Bayou community, complete with summer camp meetings on the grounds. From an early emphasis on Sunday School, the congregation grew into a supplier of teachers and religious literature to neighboring settlements.
Why it matters
Its roots reach back to the earliest years of Methodism in Texas and to the days of the Republic, making it a living thread connecting a modern community to the state's frontier founding.
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Related people
- · Robert Alexander
- · Hance Baker
- · L. S. Friend
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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Victoria Taylor Walker
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Victoria Taylor Walker climbed from a church-run school in Cedar Bayou to Prairie View College and back home to teach at the segregated Cedar Bayou Colored School in 1933, where she promptly won a full nine-month term and a safe water well for her pupils. For decades she taught children by day and adults by night, saw a school named in her honor, and after desegregation became the first Black teacher at previously all-white Stephen F. Austin Elementary. Goose Creek CISD later named yet another school for the educator who declared no one could love teaching more than she did.
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