First Methodist Church of Burkburnett
Burkburnett, Wichita County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Burkburnett township’s Methodists began attending church services on Sixth street in the early 1900s, in a one-room frame building that was a combination school, church, and social gathering place. M.W. and Lula Majors, who moved to the new town of Burkburnett to open a store, were instrumental in finding the Methodist congregation its own home. Lula, a former schoolteacher who also helped build the town’s first schoolhouse, joined with preacher Frank L. McGehee and other active Methodists in a campaign to build a sanctuary, earning her the name “Mother Majors.” Banker and philanthropist John G. Hardin helped several city churches develop through loans and donations, including the Methodist church that built a frame sanctuary at 5th Street and Avenue C. The church acquired a bell for the steeple, and the first organ came from the Nesterville Schoolhouse on Gilbert Creek. The congregation held its first service on April 12, 1908. Hiram A. Boaz, president of polytechnic college in Fort Worth and later elected Methodist Bishop, delivered the first sermon in the new church. The Methodist Conference named Circuit Rider McGehee the first pastor, and he preached here one Sunday a month. The church experienced periods of expansive growth along with Burkburnett, especially following the oil boom of 1918 and again with the enlargement of nearby Sheppard Air Force Base after World War II. The congregation built a new brick sanctuary in 1925 and added an education wing in 1957. The First United Methodist Church of Burkburnett has made contributions to the community for more than a century.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Methodists in the young oil town of Burkburnett first worshipped in a one-room building that doubled as school and social hall. Led by former schoolteacher "Mother Majors" and circuit rider Frank McGehee, they held their first service in a new frame sanctuary in 1908. The congregation boomed with the 1918 oil strike and again as Sheppard Air Force Base expanded after World War II, building a brick sanctuary in 1925.
Why it matters
The church's growth tracks the oil booms and military expansion that shaped North Texas across the 20th century.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
Burkburnett sits at the top of North Texas, hard against the Red River, and in the early 1900s it was a brand-new town still deciding what it would become. The marker opens in that fragile, hopeful moment, when the local Methodists were meeting in a one-room frame building on Sixth Street that served all at once as school, church, and social hall.
That kind of shared, do-everything building was common on the young Texas prairie, where communities had to stretch every resource. But Burkburnett was about to be transformed by something few towns ever experience: oil. The boom that arrived in 1918 would turn a quiet farm town into a roaring center of activity almost overnight.
So the church in this story grows against a backdrop of sudden, dramatic change — first the raw beginnings of a frontier town, then the frenzy of an oil strike, and later the steady influence of a nearby military base. Few congregations can say their history tracks the industrial fortunes of their region quite so closely.
People & events
The people who built this church come through the inscription vividly. M.W. and Lula Majors moved to the new town to open a store, and they threw themselves into finding the Methodist congregation a home of its own. Lula — a former schoolteacher who had also helped build Burkburnett's first schoolhouse — campaigned so tirelessly alongside preacher Frank L. McGehee that the community gave her a name that stuck: "Mother Majors."
They weren't alone. John G. Hardin, a banker and philanthropist, helped several of the town's churches get established through loans and donations, the Methodists among them. Their frame sanctuary rose at 5th Street and Avenue C, complete with a bell for the steeple and a first organ brought over from the Nesterville Schoolhouse on Gilbert Creek. The congregation held its very first service there on April 12, 1908.
That opening day carried some weight: the first sermon was delivered by Hiram A. Boaz, then president of a Fort Worth college and later a Methodist bishop, while circuit rider McGehee was named the church's first pastor, preaching one Sunday a month. In the decades that followed, the church rose with the town — booming after the 1918 oil strike and again when nearby Sheppard Air Force Base expanded after World War II. A new brick sanctuary went up in 1925, and an education wing was added in 1957.
Its place in the American story
This one church quietly tells two of the great stories of twentieth-century America. The first is oil. The 1918 boom that swelled Burkburnett was part of the wave of Texas oil strikes that reshaped the state's economy and helped power the nation's rise as an industrial giant. When a farm town's churches suddenly need bigger buildings, you're watching that history from the pew.
The second story is the military. The growth of Sheppard Air Force Base after World War II reflects how defense installations reshaped countless American communities in the mid-century decades, bringing new families, new jobs, and new demands on local institutions like schools and churches.
What makes the marker resonate is that it shows these vast national forces landing in one very specific place. The oil derrick and the airbase are abstractions until you see them measured in Sunday services, new sanctuaries, and an education wing — the human ledger of a booming century.
If you visit
When you visit the First United Methodist Church of Burkburnett, look for the layers of its long life. The congregation has worshipped here for well over a century, and its buildings tell the story of a town that kept growing — from a first frame sanctuary to the 1925 brick church and the education wing that followed.
As you stand there, let your imagination run back to April 1908, to a young oil-country town gathering for its first service, bell in the steeple and a schoolhouse organ inside. Think of "Mother Majors" and the circuit-riding preacher who could only make it one Sunday a month. It's a reminder of how much determination it took to build permanence out of a brand-new town.
Burkburnett makes a fitting stop for anyone tracing the oil and military history of North Texas. Pair this marker with the broader story of the region's boom years, and you'll come away seeing the church not as a building off to the side of that history, but as one of its truest records.
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
- · Lula Majors
- · Frank L. McGehee
- · John G. Hardin
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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