First United Methodist Church of Falfurrias
Falfurrias, Brooks County, Texas
Marker Inscription
The Rev. C. W. Perkins (1853-1942) organized this congregation in 1904 with 7 charter members. Early services were conducted in temporary quarters including the railroad depot and the 1905 frame schoolhouse, shared by all denominations. In 1906 the Methodists erected their first church building on land donated by Edward C. Lasater (1860-1930), founder of Falfurrias. Damaged by hurricanes in 1916 and 1919 and remodeled in 1935, the frame structure was replaced in 1950 by the present edifice. (1976)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
The Rev. C. W. Perkins organized this Methodist congregation in 1904 with just seven charter members, worshipping first in the railroad depot and the 1905 frame schoolhouse shared by every denomination. In 1906 the Methodists built their own church on land donated by town founder Edward C. Lasater. Battered by hurricanes in 1916 and 1919 and remodeled in 1935, the frame building gave way to the present church in 1950.
Why it matters
The congregation's story parallels the founding of Falfurrias itself, showing how churches took root alongside the depots and schools of a brand-new South Texas town.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
At the turn of the twentieth century, the brush country of deep South Texas was still mostly ranch land: long stretches of mesquite and grass, a few big ranches, and very few towns. That began to change as railroads pushed into the region. Wherever a line was laid, a depot followed, and around the depot a town could grow almost overnight.
Falfurrias was one of those new towns. Its founder, rancher Edward C. Lasater, set out to build a real community on his land, with homes, businesses, a school and churches. The first years were rough. The marker makes this plain: the young congregation had no building of its own and met wherever it could, including the railroad depot.
Nationally, this was the Progressive Era, when Americans were building schools, churches and civic institutions at a remarkable pace. In a brand-new South Texas town, those institutions weren't inherited from earlier generations. The first residents had to create them from scratch, and a Methodist congregation of seven people was part of that work.
People & events
The story begins in 1904 with the Rev. C. W. Perkins, a minister already past fifty. He gathered just seven charter members into a Methodist congregation. Seven people is barely a Sunday school class, but in a town this new it was a real start.
For a while the congregation had no home of its own. Services moved between temporary spots, among them the railroad depot, which was the busy heart of a new town like this one. After 1905 the Methodists also met in the frame schoolhouse, which every denomination in town shared. You can picture the building's week: schoolchildren on weekdays, then different congregations taking turns with the same benches and the same four walls.
In 1906 the Methodists finally built a church of their own, on land donated by town founder Edward C. Lasater. The Gulf Coast then tested that frame building hard. Hurricanes damaged it in 1916 and again in 1919. The congregation repaired it, remodeled it in 1935, and used it until 1950, when the present church replaced it. Perkins lived to see much of that history before his death in 1942.
Its place in the American story
Across the American West and Southwest, new towns followed a familiar sequence: railroad, depot, school, churches. Falfurrias's Methodist congregation shows that sequence in miniature. People worshipped in a depot and a shared schoolhouse before any denomination could afford a building of its own.
The gift of land from the town's founder fits a broader pattern too. The men who laid out new towns often donated lots to churches and schools, because houses of worship made a place feel settled and respectable, which attracted families. A town with churches was a town people wanted to move to.
The congregation also shows how communities on the Gulf Coast lived with hurricanes. The storms that damaged this church in 1916 and 1919 were part of life along the coast of Texas. Rebuilding again and again, and eventually replacing a worn frame building with a sturdier one, is a story repeated in towns across the region.
If you visit
When you stand at the present church, remember that it is the congregation's third chapter. Before it came the 1906 frame church, and before that a railroad depot and a schoolhouse shared with every other faith in town. The building you see dates from 1950, but the congregation behind it goes back to 1904 and seven founding members.
Falfurrias is a small town, and a stop here makes a good pause on a drive through the South Texas brush country. Take a few minutes to walk around downtown and think about how new everything here once was. Early in the twentieth century, this whole community was being built at once.
As you drive in or out, look at the flat, open ranch land around you. It helps explain why a depot and a schoolhouse mattered so much to early residents, and why a church of their own was worth working toward.
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
- · C. W. Perkins
- · Edward C. Lasater
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Brooks County's Catholic Heritage
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Catholic faith reached this corner of South Texas well before 1800, when the region lay within the Diocese of Monterrey. For some forty years, priests from San Diego rode the scattered ranches to minister to the faithful, and in the early 1900s permanent missions and parishes took root around Falfurrias.
Brooks County Courthouse
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Brooks County was carved from the ranchlands of South Texas in 1911 and named for a state legislator who became its first county judge. On a site deeded by Falfurrias founder Edward C. Lasater, the county raised this brick courthouse in 1914 to the design of noted San Antonio architect Alfred Giles, who planned public buildings across Texas and northern Mexico.
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Falfurrias was founded in 1904 as a cattle-shipping point by rancher Edward C. Lasater, who took the name from a village on land he had bought in 1893. When the San Antonio & Aransas Pass Railroad reached the area, Lasater platted the townsite and built its hotel, store, water and power plants, and cotton gin, then opened the region to truck farming, citrus, and dairying — founding South Texas' first creamery. Later oil and gas discoveries added yet another chapter to the boomtown's growth.
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Kentucky-born James Abijah Brooks came to Texas in 1876 as a rancher and trail driver before joining the Texas Rangers, whom he served from 1882 to 1906. He chased down South Texas cattle thieves, helped block the notorious 1896 Fitzsimmons-Maher prizefight near El Paso, and later served in the legislature and for decades as county judge of the county that bears his name.