Floresville United Methodist Church
Floresville, Wilson County, Texas
Marker Inscription
The organizational meeting for the Floresville Methodist Episcopal Church, South, was held at the home of Mr. and Mrs. W. C. Agee on October 25, 1875. The Rev. Ichabod Kingsbury led in the congregation's formation and served as first pastor. The six charter members included Mr. and Mrs. Agee, Judge W. L. Worsham, Mr. and Mrs. Zack Burrows, and James C. Wilson. During its early years, the congregation held worship services at various locations, including homes, the Wilson County Courthouse, and a private school known as Floresville Academy. Its first sanctuary, completed on this site in 1885 during the pastorate of The Rev. W. H. Killough, was destroyed in an 1886 storm. Under the leadership of The Rev. J. C. Russell, another building was constructed in 1887 and served the church until 1942. Several area Methodist congregations have merged with the Floresville church over the years, allowing it to provide additional service and leadership to the community. Known since 1968 as the Floresville United Methodist Church, the congregation continues to reflect the ideals and traditions of its founders as it celebrates the Bicentennial of Methodism in America. (1984)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Methodists in Floresville organized their congregation in October 1875 at the home of the Agee family, with only six charter members and a circuit-riding minister as their first pastor. In the early years they worshiped wherever they could—homes, the county courthouse, a private academy—before completing a sanctuary in 1885 that a storm soon destroyed. Rebuilt and merged over the years with neighboring congregations, the church has served this Wilson County seat for well over a century.
Why it matters
The congregation's persistence through storms and mergers reflects how Methodist circuit churches knit together the towns of frontier South Texas.
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Related people
- · Rev. Ichabod Kingsbury
- · Judge W. L. Worsham
- · James C. Wilson
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
First Baptist Church of Floresville
Floresville, TX
The Rev. John Washburn came from Illinois to Texas in 1877 and soon settled in Floresville to lead the Floresville Academy, and it was there in August 1878 that some twenty charter members gathered at the Wilson County Courthouse to organize this Baptist fellowship. For its first decade the congregation worshipped in the courthouse before buying land — once part of the vast Arocha league grants — and raising a simple 40-by-60-foot church in 1889. The building was enlarged and rebuilt across the following century as the congregation grew.
Captain Will Wright
Floresville, TX
Will Wright (1868–1942) was a founding officer of Company D of the Texas Rangers, part of a family threaded through the Rangers and the Border Patrol. Before that he served Wilson County as deputy sheriff and then sheriff from 1902 to 1917, raising his family in the jailer's quarters while in office. Remembered as always armed and a stern but gentlemanly leader, he embodied the lawman of the South Texas borderlands.
The Flores de Abrego Family and Floresville
Floresville, TX
The Flores de Abrego family came from northern Spain before the American Revolution and, through the eighteenth century, drove their cattle north to establish ranches along the San Antonio River. Grandsons of the family fought on the Texian side in the revolution against Mexico, and in 1854 Josefa Agustina Flores de Abrego married Samuel William Barker, who became Wilson County's first sheriff. In 1867 Josefa donated 200 acres for the new county seat, asking that it be named Floresville in honor of her ancestor Francisco Antonio Flores de Abrego II.
Wilson County Courthouse
Floresville, TX
Completed in 1884, this Italianate courthouse replaced an earlier building raised soon after Floresville became the Wilson County seat in 1871. It came from the drafting table of noted San Antonio architect Alfred Giles and was built with bricks fired in a local yard. Its Doric-columned entry pavilions, bracketed cornice, and central steepled tower marked it as the civic centerpiece of the county.