First United Methodist Church of Hico
Hico, Hamilton County, Texas
Marker Inscription
In 1881, the Rev. John W. Hearn and Elder L.B. Hickman led 29 members in a newly organized Methodist church in Hico. The congregation held its early services in the Hico schoolhouse, and charter members included the L.T. Dillashaw, J.B. Hillyer, George D. Autrey and D.G. Barrow families. During a 10-day revival in winter 1884-85, evangelist R.R. Raymond helped raise money for a church sanctuary. Texas Central Railway donated land in 1886 for the use of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, Congregation of Hico. A sanctuary was completed in spring 1887 at this site. The structure served the congregation, which had grown to more than 300 members, until 1902-03, when the current sanctuary was built of wood with handcrafted benches and pulpit. The church held an open house and homecoming in 1954, showing to former members and pastors a new education building and remodeled sanctuary, with an enclosed bell tower and new tan brick façade over the original wood cladding. The congregation's numbers grew during the 20th century as other area churches merged their memberships into Hico's. These churches represented the communities of Carlton, Clairette, Duffau, Fairy and Pleasant Hill. During its years as a congregation, the church has contributed to area communities through its many services, including Boy and Girl First United Methodist Church of Hico Marker image. Click for full size. By Richard Denney, July 29, 2018 2. First United Methodist Church of Hico Marker Side view of marker from entrance to church; marker is hard to see through bushes that have grown in front of the marker. Scout programs, community dinners, and clothes and food pantry, as well as its youth, music and education programs, missionary funding, study and worship. (2002)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In the young railroad town of Hico, a small band of 29 Methodists organized in 1881 and worshipped in the local schoolhouse until a winter revival helped fund their first sanctuary, completed in 1887 on land the Texas Central Railway had donated. As the congregation swelled past 300 and neighboring communities like Carlton, Duffau and Fairy folded their memberships in, the church rebuilt in wood around 1902-03 and later modernized behind a tan-brick façade.
Why it matters
Rural Texas congregations like this one were the social glue of frontier farming towns, doubling as schools, meeting halls and relief networks as the railroad reshaped where communities gathered.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · John W. Hearn
- · L.B. Hickman
- · R.R. Raymond
Related events
- · 1884-85 revival
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Duffau School
Stephenville, TX
When the Duffau community's school burned, residents rebuilt in 1936 with a $4,700 insurance settlement, hiring Stephenville architect-contractor George Coleman to raise a modest brick-veneered schoolhouse with a hipped metal roof. Heated by wood stoves and lit by oil lamps, it taught local children until 1958, when Duffau consolidated with the schools in nearby Hico. Rather than let it stand empty, neighbors converted the building into a community center they have maintained ever since.
Clairette Schoolhouse
Clairette, TX
Clairette's first schoolhouse was a one-room log building raised as early as 1871. This two-story structure went up in 1912, a year after the Clairette Independent School District was created, and served until the rural school closed in 1949. Built of native stone with a Tuscan-columned porch, it later hosted community gatherings.
Olin Baptist Church
Olin, TX
Founded in 1878 by five charter members, this Hamilton County congregation was known in turn as Kings Chapel, Pleasant Hill Missionary Baptist Church, and Dry Fork Church. When the deacons bought land here in 1899 and a post office opened under the name Olin, the church took the community's new name as its own. For well over a century Olin Baptist Church has served the rural community with worship, education, and missionary work.
Chalk Mountain Masonic Lodge #894 A.F. & A.M.
Stephenville, TX
Fourteen charter members organized the Chalk Mountain Masonic Lodge in December 1904, and by 1908 a member had built a two-story frame building whose ground floor held a grocery store and whose upper floor hosted lodge meetings—held, by tradition, on the Saturday on or after each full moon. The store closed in the 1930s, but Masons continued to meet upstairs until 1989, when the historic second story was lifted and moved a quarter-mile to a new site. The lodge still gathers there today.