Clark Memorial United Methodist Church
Bonham, Fannin County, Texas
Marker Inscription
The organizational meeting for this church was held at the home of Mrs. S. J. Stevenson in 1893. The new congregation met for worship at the Stevenson home until 1901 when they constructed a small building on this site. Although many additions to the church complex have been made, the original building still serves as the sanctuary. During the 1920s the church was named Clark Memorial Methodist Church in honor of longtime member Mrs. John Clark. The congregation has produced a number of ministers from its membership.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
This congregation took shape in 1893 at a meeting in the home of Mrs. S. J. Stevenson, gathering there for worship until members built a small church on this site in 1901 — a building that still serves as the sanctuary today. In the 1920s the church was renamed Clark Memorial in honor of longtime member Mrs. John Clark. Over the years it has sent a number of its own members into the ministry.
Why it matters
Congregations like this one were the social bedrock of North Texas towns, and their surviving early buildings preserve the region's community history.
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Related people
- · Mrs. John Clark
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Bailey Inglish
Bonham, TX
In 1837, Bailey Inglish moved his family from western Arkansas to this part of the young Republic of Texas, where he helped organize Fannin County and served on its land board and later as chief justice. To shield settlers from repeated Indian raids he built a fort on his land, and the settlement that grew up around it—first called Bois d'Arc—became Bonham. Through public service and gifts of land for town lots, a cemetery, and a female seminary, he shaped the community's early growth.
Fannin County Courthouses
Bonham, TX
Fannin County's seat of justice began humbly — the commissioners first met at Jacob Black's cabin in early 1836, before the county was even organized. As the seat migrated from Warren to Bois d'Arc (renamed Bonham for an Alamo hero), the courthouse evolved from oak-and-cedar and log structures, one with a jury loft reachable only by an outside ladder, to a stone-and-brick succession. Scottish stonemasons Kane and Cormack built the striking 1888 courthouse of native Gober stone; after a 1929 fire, its remains were incorporated into the Leuders-stone building dedicated by Governor John Connally in 1966.
Fannin County
Bonham, TX
Anglo-American settlers reached this stretch of the Red River by steamboat in 1836, and Fannin County was created the next year, organized in 1838. It honors James W. Fannin, executed with his surrendered command at Goliad in March 1836, one of the darkest episodes of the Texas Revolution. County officials first met at Jacob Black's cabin, and the seat wandered from Warren to Bois d'Arc — renamed Bonham in 1844 for Alamo defender James Butler Bonham.
Old W. W. Brownlee Home
Bonham, TX
This Bonham home was built in 1872 with lumber hauled overland from Jefferson, then a major East Texas shipping town, before railroads reached the interior. A second story was added later, and the house was purchased by Alex Longmire in 1946. It was recorded as a Texas Historic Landmark in 1968.