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.
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Related people
- · Lula Majors
- · Frank L. McGehee
- · John G. Hardin
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Central Baptist Church
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Oil drew little attention here until April 17, 1919, when the Bob Waggoner Well No. 1 blew in at 4,800 barrels a day, opening the Northwest Extension Oilfield on the former Burk Burnett ranch. A frenzy of derricks followed, and hastily built tent cities—Thrift, Springtown, Waggoner City, and others—sprang up to serve the boom. Today only scattered pump jacks work the field that once roared.
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