First United Methodist Church of Columbus
Columbus, Colorado County, Texas
Marker Inscription
One of the earliest Protestant congregations in Texas; founded in Austin's original colony. The first church building was near the Colorado, on a lot " sold" for $1.00 by Isam Tooke in 1848, and an adjoining lot bought in 1849 from George W. Smith. The Rev. J. E. Kolbe was then pastor; trustees were Eli Clapp, W. B. DeWees, Thomas Neavitt, Henry Terrell, I. Tooke, and Asa Townsend. In 1873, a second church was built just south of the railroad. Present site was given by Mrs. Sarah E. Stafford, and a new church was completed in July 1897, under the Rev. S. F. Chambers, pastor.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
One of the earliest Protestant congregations in Texas, this Methodist church traces its roots to Stephen F. Austin's original colony and built its first sanctuary near the Colorado River in 1848 on a lot sold for a single dollar. It moved and rebuilt as Columbus grew, raising a new church south of the railroad in 1873 and its present site's building in 1897. Its long list of early trustees reads like a roster of the town's founding families.
Why it matters
Congregations dating to Austin's colony mark the arrival of organized Anglo-American religious and civic life in Mexican Texas, a foundation laid a generation before statehood.
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Related people
- ¡ J. E. Kolbe
- ¡ Sarah E. Stafford
- ¡ Isam Tooke
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Old Stafford Opera House
Columbus, TX
Millionaire cattleman R. E. Stafford built this grand opera house in 1886, hiring famed Texas architect Nicholas Clayton to design an interior that seated a thousand beneath gas chandeliers and an elaborate hand-painted curtain. Its opening performance starred the celebrated Lillian Russell, and magician Harry Houdini later played its stage â audiences arriving on special trains from distant towns.
Asa Townsend
Columbus, TX
Born in South Carolina and raised in Georgia, Asa Townsend moved his large family from Florida to Colorado County, Texas, in 1838. A civic leader, he served on the committee advocating Texas's 1845 annexation to the United States and belonged to the Colorado River Navigation Association. During Reconstruction he organized ventures into Mexico and remained active in the Methodist church and Masonic lodges.
The Rangers of Austin's Colony
Columbus, TX
By 1822 Stephen F. Austin had drawn some 150 families to his colony on the Colorado and Brazos rivers, where fear of Indian raids was constant. After the Mexican governor Trespalacios organized local defense, colonists in 1823 raised a small company under Moses Morrison, and Austin pledged ten more men at his own expense to serve as "Rangers." Though the Texas Rangers were not formally organized until 1835, these earliest ranging companies became the model for the force that followed.
Tumlinson Family
Columbus, TX
John and Elizabeth Tumlinson brought their seven children to Texas as members of Stephen F. Austin's Old Three Hundred, settling on the Colorado River. John was elected the district's first alcalde and, in May 1823, helped organize the first official Texas Ranger company to defend settlers â only to be killed in an Indian attack two months later. His descendants carried the family legacy forward, with more than a dozen serving as Rangers and frontier lawmen across the following century.