First United Methodist Church
San Marcos, Hays County, Texas
Marker Inscription
First church in Hays County. Organized August 5, 1847, with 9 charter members, by circuit rider A. B. F. Kerr in home of John D. Pitts. Growing congregation moved by 1849 to a log house used for church, courthouse, and school; braved wild animals and indians to hold worship. The first church building was erected on present site, 1855; second, 1872. Present building-- an excellent example of Gothic revival style-- was built in 1893. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1970
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Hays County's first church was organized on August 5, 1847, when circuit rider A. B. F. Kerr gathered nine charter members in the home of John D. Pitts. By 1849 the growing congregation met in a log house that served at once as church, courthouse, and school, braving wild animals and the dangers of the frontier to worship. A first building rose on this site in 1855, and the present Gothic Revival sanctuary was completed in 1893.
Why it matters
As the county's founding congregation, this church shows how a single log building could serve as the religious, civic, and educational heart of a frontier community.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · A. B. F. Kerr
- · John D. Pitts
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Ragsdale-Jackman-Yarbrough House
San Marcos, TX
Built in 1868 by Peter C. Ragsdale, a veteran of the Republic of Texas army, this San Marcos house later sheltered a girls' school run by his widow Elmira before passing in 1891 to "Uncle Billy" Jackman. Jackman lived a quintessential Texas life — a trail driver to Kansas in the 1870s and '80s, later Hays County sheriff, town postmaster, and president of the Trail Drivers Association. Restored by educators in 1947, the home links the frontier, cattle-drive, and civic eras of Central Texas.
Burial site of Rev. John McCullough
Prairie Lea, TX
Born in Pennsylvania in 1805 and schooled at Princeton, John McCullough was ordained a missionary in 1835 and reached Texas in 1838, at the height of the young Republic. He served as chaplain to the Third Congress, founded Galveston's First Presbyterian Church, and famously hauled a Conestoga wagon dubbed the "Little Church in the Wilderness" to San Antonio, where he helped raise the city's first Protestant sanctuary. He kept preaching and teaching across the frontier until his death at Prairie Lea in 1870.
Founding of the First Methodist Church
San Marcos, TX
In 1847, in the log home of John D. Pitts, circuit rider A. B. F. Kerr organized the first church in newly created Hays County. The small congregation worshipped in the cabin for two years before building its own house of worship nearby.
The Courthouses of Hays County
San Marcos, TX
When Hays County was organized in 1848, justice was dispensed from a log church-schoolhouse that doubled as a courthouse. Over the following six decades the county cycled through a frame building that burned in 1868, two limestone structures undone by shifting ground and fire, and finally the eclectic 1909 courthouse designed by Austin's C. H. Page & Brother that still presides over the San Marcos square. The story tracks the rise of a frontier county into an established seat of Texas government.