First Methodist Church
Snyder, Scurry County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Organized July, 1883 at brush arbor revival on Ennis Creek, 10 miles N.E. of Snyder. First one-room church built on land donated by T. N. Nunn family in 1889. Used until 1910 when congregation could no longer be accommodated. Then services were held in courthouse. In 1914, during ministry of Rev. J. W. Hunt, red brick church replaced one-room building. Church had dome roof with sloping floor. Educational building around 1950. Third sanctuary built in 1961. (1967)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
This Snyder congregation traces its beginnings to a brush-arbor revival on Ennis Creek in July 1883, out on the open West Texas range. Its first one-room church rose in 1889 on land donated by the T. N. Nunn family, and when the flock outgrew it the courthouse became a makeshift sanctuary. A red-brick church with a domed roof and sloping floor followed in 1914, succeeded by later buildings as the congregation kept growing.
Why it matters
From brush arbor to brick sanctuary, the church charts the way Methodist worship helped anchor the settlement of frontier West Texas.
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Related people
- · J. W. Hunt
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
First Presbyterian Church
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Organized in 1892 as the First Cumberland Presbyterian Church with just seven charter members, this West Texas congregation took root in the young ranching town of Snyder. In 1906 it joined the mainline Presbyterian Church, and by 1929 the small but determined membership had completed the sanctuary whose leaded stained-glass windows honor their sacrifice. A bell forged in 1902, carried from an earlier frame church, still rings today.
Site of Store of William Henry (Pete) Snyder
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William Henry "Pete" Snyder — a Civil War veteran who had mined Colorado gold, built Kansas railroads, and hauled freight and buffalo hides — opened Snyder's first trading post here in 1878, its lumber freighted by ox-wagon from Fort Worth. The store supplied buffalo hunters living in dugouts along Deep Creek. After three years Snyder left the trade, laid out part of the original townsite, and sold lots before moving to Colorado City, where he died in 1916.
Site of Sanitarium of Alonzo Orrin Scarborough (1860-1952) Pioneer Doctor
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Alonzo Orrin Scarborough came to Snyder in 1881 as a ranch horse trainer, taught himself medicine by 'reading' it, and began practicing in 1886 before earning his M.D. from the Kentucky School of Medicine in 1889. For decades he answered calls on horseback, riding alone through the night across the sparsely settled Scurry County range, and served as chief railroad surgeon and the county's first public health officer. In 1910 he opened the Scarborough Sanitarium, the county's first hospital, and kept practicing until he was ninety.
First Baptist Church of Snyder
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Organized in May 1883—a year before Scurry County was even formally established—this congregation began as the Bledsoe Baptist Church, named for founder John S. Bledsoe, with worship held in the schoolhouse on alternate Sundays. It took the name First Baptist Church of Snyder in 1892 and bought the town lot it has occupied through four successive sanctuaries ever since. From a small frame building with a bell tower to a brick church and modern education plant, its growth tracks the town's own.