First United Methodist Church of Sulphur Springs
Sulphur Springs, Hopkins County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Established in 1850 by the Rev. Pleas B. Bailey, this Methodist congregation erected the first church building in Sulphur Springs about 1852 on a site in the "Spring Lot" which surrounded the town's mineral springs. The property was purchased from Dr. Owen S. Davis, a charter member of the church and founder of the town of Sulphur Springs. The Rev. J. D. Lynch served as the fellowship's first resident pastor. The Methodists shared their original meeting place with the Baptist Church, founded in 1859. Delegates meeting here in 1867 organized the Trinity Conference, which later became the North Texas Conference of the Methodist Church. In 1870 the Methodists sold their building to the Baptists and the newly-formed Christian Church and moved to a larger frame structure on this property, purchased from William J. Johnson. A brick church building was erected here in 1893-1894. It was replaced by the present edifice, the fifth building occupied by this fellowship, constructed in 1917 during the pastorate of the Rev. W. D. Thompson. Active in civic, cultural, and educational activities, this congregation supported Central College, a Methodist institution which operated here, 1886-1895.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Founded in 1850 by the Rev. Pleas B. Bailey, this Methodist congregation raised the first church building in Sulphur Springs around 1852, on a lot ringed by the mineral springs that gave the town its name. In its early decades it shared space with Baptists, hosted the 1867 gathering that organized what became the North Texas Conference, and supported Central College, a Methodist school that operated locally in the late 19th century. The present sanctuary, the congregation's fifth building, rose in 1917.
Why it matters
The church traces how frontier Protestant congregations anchored the civic, educational, and cultural life of a growing East Texas town across more than half a century.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Rev. Pleas B. Bailey
- · Dr. Owen S. Davis
- · Rev. J. D. Lynch
- · Rev. W. D. Thompson
Related events
- · Organization of the Trinity/North Texas Conference (1867)
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Forest Academy Cemetery
Sulphur Springs, TX
Settlement of this area began in 1847 when Thomas and Elizabeth Ticer brought their family west, and the ground was serving as a burial place before it was formally set aside in 1858—the year of its first known marked grave. Landowner Winship S. Petty enlarged the cemetery to six acres, donated it to the Forest Academy community, and supplied lumber for its first church and school. By 1910 the families had moved on, leaving the Methodist church and this graveyard as the last traces of the settlement.
Union Communiity
Sulphur Springs, TX
The rich sandy soil here drew farmers before the Civil War, and the settlement they built took its name from the Union Church, a shared meetinghouse open to members of many denominations founded around 1850. Over the decades Union gathered the usual anchors of rural Texas life — a church, a school, a store, and a post office recorded as "Yesner" — around which families lived and worshipped. Its pioneer cemetery, in use by 1861, still holds many of the area's first settlers.
Greenview Community and Cemetery
Miller Grove, TX
In 1839 the Rev. Green Weaver, a merchant, minister, and slaveholder, brought his family to this Hopkins County land and built a two-room log cabin along an old wagon trail from Shreveport. The family burial ground began in 1848 with the grave of the Weavers' infant daughter, placed close to home so her mother could walk to it, and opened to the public in 1878. A community grew up around the church and school that the Weavers' descendants helped establish, and the renamed Greenview Cemetery still holds more than 1,200 graves.
Pine Forest Church and Cemetery
Sulphur Springs, TX
Founded about 1855 in the Stout Creek neighborhood, this Methodist church rose on land deeded to trustees who were also building schools and roads in the young settlement. The adjoining cemetery holds its earliest known grave from 1856, and by the 1860s the same building served for both worship and school classes. Now holding more than 600 graves, the church and cemetery remain active more than a century and a half later.