Eden United Methodist Church
Eden, Concho County, Texas
Marker Inscription
The first Eden schoolhouse was erected in 1885, and itinerant preachers who stopped to give sermons in the schoolhouse attracted people of all faiths. A community Sunday school met in the building for several years. The First Methodist Sunday school was formed in 1901 in the home of Mr. and Mrs. J. E. Williams, who lived northeast of Eden in the Maverick community. The Eden Methodist Church, South, is said to have been organized about 1904. The Community Ladies' Aid Society, consisting of members of all faiths, helped raise funds for a Baptist Church building erected in 1905. The Methodists met in the building until they could erect their own house of worship. The Methodist congregation purchased a house for use as a parsonage in 1907; it housed circuit-riding preachers until the Rev. G. E. Glasspool became the Methodist Church's first full-time pastor the following year. The Methodist Church erected its own building in 1909. Alterations and additions were made as the congregation grew. In 1923 the Lutheran Church held services in the Methodist building, upholding the ecumenical spirit of cooperation of Eden's early days. Mrs. Hixie Crump Potter, a charter member, turned the first spade of soil at the groundbreaking of a new church building in March 1948. The first service in the new sanctuary was held on Easter Sunday, 1949. Church membership grew, and the congregation thrived. At the dawn of the 21st century, the congregation continues in the traditions of its founders with programs of worship and service. (2000)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Eden's first schoolhouse, built in 1885, drew itinerant preachers whose sermons attracted worshipers of every faith, and out of that ecumenical mix the Methodists organized around 1904. For years they met in a Baptist building until they raised their own house of worship in 1909, welcoming even Lutheran services under their roof in 1923. A charter member turned the first spade for a new sanctuary in 1948, dedicated on Easter Sunday the following year.
Why it matters
The church's shared-building beginnings capture the cooperative, denomination-blind spirit that let scarce and scattered frontier congregations get their start on the West Texas plains.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
The Methodists of Eden trace their origins to the town's very first schoolhouse, built in 1885, in the era when west Texas communities were still taking shape and a single building had to serve nearly every public need. A schoolhouse on the frontier was also a meeting hall and a church, and the itinerant preachers who stopped to give sermons in it drew listeners of every faith.
That blended, cooperative beginning is the key to this whole story. In the early years there simply were not enough people, money, or buildings for each denomination to stand alone, so worshipers shared space, shared fundraising, and shared the traveling ministers who rode long circuits between scattered settlements. Out of that common ground the separate congregations of the town slowly emerged.
The decades that followed carried the church through the Progressive era and across the middle of the twentieth century — the years when circuit-riding gave way to settled, full-time pastors, when congregations built their own permanent sanctuaries, and when American Methodism itself went through sweeping national reorganizations that would eventually change even this small church's name.
People & events
The threads came together gradually. A community Sunday school met in that 1885 schoolhouse for several years. Then in 1901 the First Methodist Sunday school was formed in the home of Mr. and Mrs. J. E. Williams, who lived northeast of Eden in the Maverick community, and the Eden Methodist Church, South, is said to have been organized about 1904.
The cooperative spirit of the early days runs all through this account. The Community Ladies' Aid Society — made up of members of all faiths — helped raise funds for a church building erected in 1905, and the Methodists met in that building until they could put up their own. They bought a house for use as a parsonage in 1907, and it sheltered circuit-riding preachers until the Rev. G. E. Glasspool became the congregation's first full-time pastor the following year. In 1909 the Methodists finally erected their own house of worship, altering and enlarging it as the congregation grew.
The generosity flowed both ways across denominational lines. In 1923 the Lutheran Church held its services in the Methodist building, keeping alive the very spirit of cooperation that had marked Eden's earliest days. Years later, in March 1948, a charter member named Mrs. Hixie Crump Potter turned the first spade of soil at the groundbreaking for a new church building — a fitting honor for someone who had been there near the beginning. The first service in that new sanctuary was held on Easter Sunday, 1949. The congregation thrived from there and carried its founders' traditions into the twenty-first century.
Its place in the American story
The heart of this church's national meaning is in its name. It began as the Methodist Church, South — a label that carries the memory of a great nineteenth-century split in American Methodism. That the congregation today is part of the United Methodist Church is the result of large national reunions: the major branches of American Methodism came back together in 1939, and a later merger in 1968 formed the United Methodist Church. A tiny west Texas congregation thus carries in its very name the long healing of divisions that once ran through the whole country.
The church's early life also captures a vanishing chapter of American religion: the age of the circuit rider. Before Eden could support a settled minister, it relied on preachers who rode from settlement to settlement, and the little parsonage bought in 1907 to house them is a tangible relic of that world. The arrival of the congregation's first full-time pastor in 1908 marks the moment a frontier mission became a permanent town church — a transition repeated in countless communities as the West settled.
Above all, the story preserves the denomination-blind cooperation of the frontier. Methodists worshiping in a building the whole community helped fund, then later opening their own doors to Lutheran services, embody a practical ecumenism that was less about theology than about neighbors helping neighbors survive in a hard, sparsely settled land — a spirit at the root of much of small-town America.
If you visit
Begin with the idea that this congregation was born in a schoolhouse that welcomed everyone. The 1885 building that started it all drew preachers and worshipers of every faith, and that openhandedness is the through-line of the whole story. Standing in Eden, you are in a town that learned to build its churches by sharing before it could afford to separate.
Let the name itself be part of what you notice. This began as a Methodist Church, South, and became United Methodist through the great national reunions of American Methodism — a small congregation quietly carrying the record of the country's mending. It is the kind of detail that turns a modest church into a window on a much larger history.
This is a rewarding stop for travelers who savor the cooperative texture of frontier faith. Remember the 1923 moment when Lutherans worshiped under this Methodist roof, and the 1948 groundbreaking where a charter member turned the first spade before the sanctuary was dedicated on Easter Sunday of 1949. Pair the visit with the town's other historic congregations, and you will come away with a clear picture of how scattered frontier believers, sharing what little they had, built something that has lasted well past their own lifetimes.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
- · Rev. G. E. Glasspool
- · Hixie Crump Potter
Themes & tags
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