Enloe United Methodist Church
Enloe, Delta County, Texas
Marker Inscription
According to Methodist association records, this congregation, led by the Rev. W. P. Reed, first assembled as a full station in the early 1870s in the community that became Unitia. The new church changed locations several times in its early years, moving to a site known as Thomas Chapel in 1873 and then to the nearby community of Liberty in 1881. The congregation returned to Unitia in 1884 but later relocated to the fledgling town of Enloe in 1896. The Texas Midland Railroad arrived in town the following year. Enloe's population grew from 100 to 273 in 1904 and was 400 by 1914. The town boasted two banks, a telegraph office, a restaurant, two general stores, a pharmacy, a seed store, two cotton gins and a bakery. The Clem Lumber Company was headquartered here and cotton shipping was the major industry. The house of worship erected by the Methodists burned on Easter Sunday 1919 and a new structure was erected later that year. The congregation was a vital part of the community. By the 1930s the membership was about 150 people with six Sunday School classes. A parsonage was erected in 1954 and an educational building was added in 1955. The Enloe United Methodist Church continued to meet in the 1919 structure at the close of the 20th century. The church and congregation remain in service with a variety of programs including the Lord's Acre Festival, originated in the 1950s, and other worship and community service activities. (1999)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
This Methodist congregation first gathered as a full station in the early 1870s under the Rev. W. P. Reed, moving through several communities — Thomas Chapel, Liberty, Unitia — before settling in the young town of Enloe in 1896. The Texas Midland Railroad arrived the next year, and Enloe boomed to 400 residents with banks, stores, cotton gins, and the Clem Lumber Company's headquarters. After the church burned on Easter Sunday 1919, the members rebuilt that same year and worshipped in the structure into the next century.
Why it matters
The church's wandering early history and its stabilization once the railroad arrived trace how the rails fixed scattered rural congregations into permanent Texas towns.
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Related people
- · W. P. Reed
Themes & tags
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