First United Methodist Church of Centerville
Centerville, Leon County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Circuit riders Henry H. Cassady and George W. Tittle served local Methodists before a formal church organized in 1850. H. D. Hubert was the first appointed preacher in 1853. The congregation met in a schoolhouse before building a sanctuary in 1871. The church reported 290 members at the time. In 1921 workers razed the church and built a new sanctuary and bell tower. During World War II, Pastor Weldon Morton became an army chaplain and members Cecil Lemons and Roland Knight were killed in action. The church campus and programs have grown over the years. Today, the oldest church in Centerville continues to serve its community as a spiritual beacon of light. 175 years of Texas Independence * 1836-2011
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Before Centerville had a formal congregation, traveling circuit riders like Henry Cassady and George Tittle carried Methodism to this Texas frontier, and in 1850 the church organized in earnest. Worshippers met in a schoolhouse until their first sanctuary rose in 1871, and a grander building with a bell tower replaced it in 1921. The congregation felt the reach of World War II directly when its pastor became an army chaplain and two members were killed in action.
Why it matters
As Centerville's oldest church, it embodies the way itinerant preachers planted lasting institutions across frontier Texas—and how even small-town congregations bore the costs of national wars.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
Centerville's Methodist story reaches back to the days of the Early Republic of Texas, when the region was frontier and organized religion arrived not in buildings but on horseback. In those years the church came to the people through circuit riders — traveling preachers who covered vast, thinly settled territory, holding services wherever a congregation could be gathered.
As settlement thickened through the mid-nineteenth century, those scattered meetings began to solidify into permanent congregations with their own preachers and, eventually, their own sanctuaries. A church that started in a borrowed schoolhouse might, within a generation, raise a building of its own — a sign that a frontier settlement was becoming a town.
By the twentieth century, a well-established congregation could rebuild grandly, and would find itself woven into the great national events of the age, including the World War that would touch nearly every American community.
People & events
Before Centerville had a formal congregation, circuit riders Henry H. Cassady and George W. Tittle carried Methodism to the local faithful. Their groundwork bore fruit in 1850, when the church formally organized, and in 1853 H. D. Hubert became its first appointed preacher.
The congregation met in a schoolhouse until it built its first sanctuary in 1871, reporting 290 members at the time — a substantial flock for a frontier county. In 1921, workers razed that building and raised a new sanctuary crowned with a bell tower, the confident architecture of a congregation putting down deep roots.
Then came the reach of World War II. Pastor Weldon Morton left his pulpit to serve as an army chaplain, tending to soldiers far from home. And the war exacted its hardest cost from the congregation directly: members Cecil Lemons and Roland Knight were killed in action, their names forever bound to this church that had prayed for their safe return.
Its place in the American story
The First United Methodist Church of Centerville traces a distinctly American path — from the circuit riders of the frontier to a settled congregation that felt the pull of a global war. That journey mirrors how faith took hold across the expanding United States, carried first by itinerant preachers and then anchored in the sanctuaries of growing towns.
The circuit-rider tradition was one of the great engines of American religious life in the nineteenth century, planting lasting institutions in places too remote and too poor to support a resident minister. Centerville's church, born of that system, became the oldest in town — a testament to how durable those horseback-sown congregations could prove.
And the church's World War II chapter reflects a truth felt in countless small towns: the costs of national wars came home to local pews. A pastor became a chaplain; two young members did not return. The same congregation that had gathered for generations of ordinary Sundays also bore the grief of a worldwide conflict, joining its story to the nation's.
If you visit
As the oldest church in Centerville, this is a place to appreciate continuity — a congregation that has served the same community across generations. Look to the 1921 sanctuary and its bell tower, the proud rebuilding of a church that had already outgrown one home and meant to endure.
As you take it in, hold in mind the long span the building represents: from circuit riders on horseback reaching a frontier settlement, to a schoolhouse congregation, to the sanctuary before you. Few institutions in a small Texas town can claim so unbroken a line back to the days of the Republic.
Remember, too, the war that touched this congregation — the pastor who left to serve as a chaplain, and the two members who were killed in action. A visit here is a chance to reflect on how a small-town church holds both the quiet rhythm of ordinary worship and the weight of the nation's largest events. It makes a meaningful stop as you explore Centerville and the history of Leon County.
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
- · Henry H. Cassady
- · George W. Tittle
- · Weldon Morton
Related events
- · World War II
Themes & tags
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