Falvey Memorial United Methodist Church
Wells, Cherokee County, Texas
Marker Inscription
In the late 1860s or early 1870s, Republic of Texas Army veteran James H. Bowman offered one hundred acres of land to the Rev. W. D. Lewis, Sr., of nearby Barsola, on the condition that he move to the Mt. Hope community for the purpose of establishing a Methodist church. The Rev. Mr. Lewis accepted the offer, and the Mt. Hope Methodist Episcopal Church, South, was organized by 1875. The Wells community was established in 1885 as the Kansas and Gulf Short Line Railroad was built through the area to the south of Mt. Hope. It was named for Major. E. H. Wells, a railroad engineer. Dr. J. C. Falvey and his wife, Matilda Falvey, settled in Wells that year. They joined the Mt. Hope Methodist congregation after it relocated to Wells in 1888. The congregation soon built a parsonage behind the new church. The church was a focal point for area Methodist pioneers. This congregation prospered for the remainder of the 19th century and well into the 20th. From 1948 to 1950 a new church building was constructed on this site in honor of Dr. J. C. and Mrs. Matilda Falvey by their son. The Falvey Memorial Methodist Church was dedicated in 1951. Active in the Mt. Hope and Wells communities from its earliest days, Falvey Memorial United Methodist Church continues to serve the area with programs of worship and service. These include ecumenical gatherings, such as a Bible reading marathon and Easter sunrise services at Mt. Hope Cemetery tabernacle, as well as community outreach. Falvey Memorial United Methodist Church continues in the traditions of its founders. (2000)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Around 1870 the Texas veteran James H. Bowman offered a hundred acres to the Rev. W. D. Lewis, Sr. to plant a Methodist church at Mt. Hope, and by 1875 the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, was organized there. When the railroad created the town of Wells in 1885, the congregation followed, joined by Dr. J. C. Falvey and his wife Matilda. Between 1948 and 1950 their son built a new church here in their honor, and the Falvey Memorial congregation still serves the Mt. Hope and Wells communities.
Why it matters
The church traces how a frontier Methodist congregation followed the railroad, sustaining a rural community's spiritual life from pioneer days into the modern era.
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Related people
- · James H. Bowman
- · Rev. W. D. Lewis, Sr.
- · Dr. J. C. Falvey
- · Matilda Falvey
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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Mt. Hope Cemetery
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Joseph and Mary Bowman brought their family through Missouri and Mississippi to Texas as part of Stephen F. Austin's colony, and their sons Joseph, John, and James fought for Texas independence from Mexico. In 1875 James H. Bowman offered a hundred acres to draw the Rev. W. D. Lewis to establish a Methodist church at Mt. Hope, giving adjacent land for this cemetery. The first burial came that November; when the railroad passed through Wells in 1886, the church moved to town and Bowman himself was laid to rest here.
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John Joseph Bowman came to Texas from Tennessee in 1822 as a boy, settling with his family in Stephen F. Austin's colony on the Colorado River among the very first Anglo-American colonists. In 1835 he enlisted in the Texian Army and fought in the war for independence alongside his father and brother. He later put down permanent roots in Cherokee County, where he is buried near his brother James.
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