Channing United Methodist Church
Channing, Hartley County, Texas
Marker Inscription
The town of Channing was organized in 1890 as a general headquarters and supplier for the vast XIT Ranch. The Channing Methodist Church was organized in the fledgling town by the Rev. E. T. Harrison. Records indicate that it was the first Methodist church north of the Canadian River. The earliest members were A. G. Boyce, manager of the XIT Ranch, his wife Annie and their daughter Bessie; Bertie Cherveny, a plumber; Jacob P. McLain, the Rivers Hotel keeper and his wife Elizabeth; and Hereford cattle breeders James Powell and William and Marilla Powell. Trustees for the church purchased property on this site in 1901 and the building was completed by the following year. A fellowship hall and other additions were made in 1958. The Channing United Methodist Church continues in the traditions of its founders. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1964
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Channing rose in 1890 as the headquarters and supply point for the vast XIT Ranch, one of the largest ranches in the world. The Methodist congregation organized here is said to have been the first Methodist church north of the Canadian River, and its earliest members read like a roster of the frontier town — the XIT's ranch manager and his family, a hotel keeper, a plumber, and Hereford cattle breeders. Trustees bought this site in 1901 and finished the building the next year.
Why it matters
Tied to the legendary XIT Ranch, this church anchors the story of the great cattle empires that opened the Texas Panhandle to permanent settlement.
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Related people
- · E. T. Harrison
- · A. G. Boyce
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Hartley County Courthouse
Channing, TX
Hartley County was organized in 1891, and its county seat see-sawed until XIT Ranch interests helped move it to Channing in 1896—where the old frame courthouse was dismantled and hauled to the new town. In 1906 a proper Beaux Arts courthouse rose in its place, its triumphal-arch entrance and paired Roman Ionic columns lit and watered by its own well and power plant. Vaults and jury quarters were added over the following decades as the Panhandle county matured.
XIT General Office
Channing, TX
The legendary XIT Ranch sprawled across three million acres of the Texas Panhandle, land the state traded to investors in exchange for building its capitol in Austin. In 1898–99 the ranch raised this handsome general office in Channing, hauling in five railroad cars of brick and dressing it in Victorian detail — a wraparound porch, decorative eave brackets, and turned columns meant to impress visitors amid the open range. It ran the vast operation until 1912.
The Historic LS
Boys Ranch, TX
Founded in the 1870s by frontier trader W.M.D. Lee and New York financier Lucien Scott, the LS grew into one of the great cattle empires of the Texas Panhandle, running more than 100,000 head and driving herds up the trail each year. Its range brushed against legends — Billy the Kid rode through, and the surrounding country saw Tascosa gunfights fill Boot Hill. Drought in 1886 and the vast XIT land grant cut the LS down, but the brand endured through later owners, including one cowboy, E.L. Doheny, who left the $25-a-month saddle to become an oil magnate ensnared in the Teapot Dome scandal.
Old Tascosa
Boys Ranch, TX
Just northeast of here sprawled Old Tascosa, the self-styled cowboy capital of the Texas Panhandle. An easy crossing of the Canadian River made it a trading spot long before permanent settlement, and after the buffalo vanished, sheepherders, then cattlemen like Charles Goodnight, poured in during 1876. Isolated hundreds of miles from other towns, Tascosa drew gunmen and lawmen alike and buried its dead in its own Boot Hill—until barbed wire, the giant XIT Ranch, and a bypassing railroad choked off the open range and left it a ghost town.