First Methodist Society, Dallas County's
Farmers Branch, Dallas County, Texas
Marker Inscription
(Webb Chapel United Methodist Church) Founded in Republic of Texas. Isaac Blackman Webb (1802 - 80), after moving his family from Missouri to the Peters Colony in 1843-44 winter, appealed for a visit by a missionary. On March 19, 1844, in log cabin of his brother-in-law, William M. Cochran, a worship service was held by the Rev. Thomas J. Brown, the first known Methodist minister to visit the Colony. On May 5, 1845, circuit services were begun by the Rev. Daniel Shook in Webb's Cabin, and a society was formed. The charter members: Nancy Jane Hughes Cochran (Mrs. William M., said to have been first professing Methodist in the Colony), M. Franklin and Margaret Fortner, and Isaac and Mary Hughes Webb. An 18' x 18' log cabin was built on Webb's land in springtime 1846, as the Colony's first church. The Rev. Joab H. Biggs was first (1847-48) pastor. The hewn-log cabin also served as schoolhouse, public meeting hall, and post office for community. Some local Methodists in 1850s met Cedar Springs members halfway, and built Cochran Chapel (5.3 mi. SE). Webb Chapel Cemetery (1.8 mi. SE) marks site where the others built a frame church in 1877. A second frame building of 1903 was used until present sanctuary was erected in 1955 to house this church body with a record of continuous services since 1845.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
When Isaac Blackman Webb moved his family from Missouri into the Peters Colony in the winter of 1843–44, he sent for a missionary, and in March 1844 the first known Methodist minister to visit the colony preached in a nearby log cabin. A society formed in 1845, and by 1846 an 18-by-18-foot log cabin rose on Webb's land as the colony's first church—doubling as schoolhouse, meeting hall, and post office. The congregation, now Webb Chapel United Methodist Church, claims continuous services since 1845.
Why it matters
Founded in the days of the Republic of Texas, this pioneer congregation shows how a single log cabin could serve as church, school, and civic center for an entire frontier settlement.
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Related people
- · Isaac Blackman Webb
- · William M. Cochran
- · Nancy Jane Hughes Cochran
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Webb Chapel Cemetery
Farmer's Branch, TX
Isaac and Mary Webb brought their family to the Peters Colony in 1844 and within a year helped form a Methodist society—the first church organized in Dallas County. Their log Webb Chapel, built in 1846, doubled as the settlement's first school, and the churchyard became a cemetery in 1847 when the Webbs' young daughter Alice died. Generations of north Texas pioneers now rest at the site, still tended by a cemetery association.
Frankford Church
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The White Rock Masonic Lodge Hall did triple duty for early Frankford as lodge, school, and church, and among its worshipers was a Methodist congregation organized on a circuit in 1885. In the 1890s Captain William McKamy and his neighbors built this frame church, which the Methodists used until 1924; Episcopal services followed in the 1960s. It is a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark.
Kit Community
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John W. and Jestine Gorbit farmed here by 1850, and a settlement called Gorbit grew up around them as a stop on a pre–Civil War postal route. After Ike Story opened a store and post office in 1889, confusion with a similarly named town led to the settlement being renamed Kit in 1894, and residents added a cemetery and schools. When the railroad town of Irving was founded nearby in 1903, Kit's businesses, churches, and post office drifted to the new townsite, and by the 1940s the community had faded into the growing metropolis.
Minters Chapel Methodist Church
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