Dewville United Methodist Church
Nixon, Gonzales County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Settlers in the community of Sandies began to hold Methodist worship services in 1842. Sandies Chapel was chartered by the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, in 1857. Trustees were Newburn Guinn, David Barnes, E. R. Hurt, D. P. Briggs, and J. T. Gillett. In 1897, the congregation moved one mile to the new community of Dewville where a church was built on land donated by Mrs. C. C. Vernor, the wife of an early local pastor. Over the years, the church has provided significant service and leadership to the town and remains an active institution here. Texas sesquicentennial 1836-1986 Incise on base: In memory of Rev. J. E. and Mrs. C. C. Vernor and their descendants
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Methodist worship in the Sandies community began in 1842, and Sandies Chapel was formally chartered by the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, in 1857. When settlement shifted, the congregation moved a mile in 1897 to the new town of Dewville, building on land donated by Mrs. C. C. Vernor, wife of an early pastor. The church has remained an active center of local life ever since.
Why it matters
The congregation's long continuity from a frontier chapel to a settled town church shows how faith communities anchored rural Texas life across generations.
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Related people
- · C. C. Vernor
- · J. E. Vernor
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Sandies-Dewville Community
Nixon, TX
Sandies grew up in the 1830s among settlers of Green DeWitt's Mexican-era colony, quickly gaining a church, a Masonic lodge, and a school in the decades that followed. When the Dew brothers opened a store and cotton gin a mile off in 1886 and a post office followed in 1894, the center of gravity shifted to a new townsite platted as Dewville, drawing the church and school with it. Like many small Texas farming communities, Dewville faded after World War II, its post office shuttering in 1955, and today only cemeteries and a lone Methodist church mark where the two settlements once stood.
Sandies Chapel Cemetery
Nixon, TX
This burial ground began with the family of Joseph and Catherine McCoy, pioneers of Green DeWitt's colony, and later served the Sandies Chapel community, with graves reaching back to the 1860s. Among those laid to rest here are a San Jacinto veteran, citizens of the Republic of Texas, Civil War soldiers of the local home guard, and four pioneer Methodist ministers. In one small plot lies a cross-section of early Texas history.
1835 Attack at Sandies Water Hole
Gonzales County, TX
Raids were a constant fear in DeWitt's Colony after its 1825 founding, and Green DeWitt built a fort at Gonzales and begged Mexican authorities for troops and a cannon. In 1835 a party of thirteen French and Mexican traders bound from Natchitoches to Mexico camped at Sandies Water Hole, where a large force—believed to be Comanche—fell upon them. The fight lasted hours and left all thirteen dead, and with no help forthcoming from the Mexican government, such attacks continued at the site into Texas statehood.
Gonzales-San Antonio Road
Gonzales County, TX
When Green DeWitt planted his colony on the Guadalupe River in 1825, he ordered a road cut to link his capital at Gonzales with San Antonio, and surveyor Byrd Lockhart opened the eighty-mile route in 1827—its mileage notched into roadside oak trunks. Settlers, traders, and Mexican travelers braved the road despite the danger of raids. A decade later it became a thoroughfare of the Texas Revolution: the 'Immortal 32' marched down it from Gonzales to reinforce the Alamo, and Santa Anna's army followed after the fort fell.