Dresden United Methodist Church
Blooming Grove, Navarro County, Texas
Marker Inscription
The Rev. James E. Ferguson (1824-76), father of Texas Governor James Ferguson, was appointed in 1847 to Richland (later Dresden), the first Methodist circuit in Navarro County. Ethan Melton (1793-1873), the founder of Dresden -- which was "Richland" in his day -- gave land for a school, cemetery, and the church. A log cabin meetinghouse stood here in 1847. A storm razed that structure; fire, another. The present building stands near the original land. This church helped Blooming Grove Mission become a full-fledged church and has also aided other congregations.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In 1847 the Rev. James E. Ferguson—father of future Texas governor James Ferguson—was appointed to Richland, later called Dresden, the first Methodist circuit in Navarro County. Community founder Ethan Melton donated land for a school, cemetery, and church, and a log meetinghouse stood here by 1847; storm and fire each destroyed an early structure before the present building rose nearby. Over the years the congregation helped nurture other churches, including the Blooming Grove Mission.
Why it matters
The church documents the Methodist circuit-riding that organized religious and community life across frontier Navarro County, and its tie to a governor's family roots it in Texas political history.
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Related people
- · James E. Ferguson
- · Ethan Melton
- · James Ferguson
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Dresden Cemetery
Blooming Grove, TX
Ethan Melton settled here in 1841 and gave his name — and later three acres of land — to a pioneer village that grew up around a post office, an Indian trading post, and the county's first doctor. Renamed Dresden in 1852, the town buried its dead in this ground from the 1840s onward, including 48 Civil War veterans and a Cumberland Presbyterian minister. The village itself has vanished, but the cemetery, cared for by an association meeting annually since 1877, still serves descendants of the first settlers.
Raleigh Cemetery
Frost, TX
This burial ground takes its name from Raleigh, an early Navarro County settlement that once supported a church, grist mill, blacksmith, and school around a post office opened in 1900. Its oldest marked grave dates to the 1850s, though the land was not formally set aside for burials until a local couple deeded an acre and a half in 1885, and the cemetery remains in use today.
Campbell-Elrod Cemetery
Barry, TX
Navarro County pioneer David Wilson Campbell donated ten acres to the Harmony Methodist Church in 1855, setting part aside as a burial ground that came to bear his name. Campbell himself was laid to rest here in 1879, among marked and unmarked graves of early settlers, the earliest documented being a child who died in 1859.
David Wilson Campbell
Barry, TX
David Wilson Campbell left Georgia for a still-young, still-contested Texas in 1835, arriving just as the fight for independence from Mexico was breaking open. He shouldered a musket with the Texas army in 1836, then traded soldiering for the plow, breaking ground as one of Navarro County's early farmers. In 1845 he deeded ten acres to the Harmony Methodist Church, and a corner of that gift became the family cemetery where generations of Campbells now rest.