Friendship Methodist Church
Davilla, Milam County, Texas
Marker Inscription
As early as the 1870s, Methodist worship services for pioneers of the Friendship community were conducted by circuit riders in a one-room schoolhouse (.25 mi. W). Land for the present church site and cemetery was deeded in 1884 by E. W. Graham, and a sanctuary was built here soon after. The site of many early revivals, the Friendship Methodist Church has served as a focal point of the surrounding rural community. Traditional services for the congregation, including a Memorial Day observance in June and a Thanksgiving celebration, now serve as homecoming events.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Methodist circuit riders were preaching to the pioneers of the Friendship community in a one-room schoolhouse as early as the 1870s. After E. W. Graham deeded land for a church and cemetery in 1884, a sanctuary rose here and became a hub for revivals and rural fellowship, a role its homecoming gatherings still honor today.
Why it matters
Frontier churches built by circuit riders and their congregations anchored isolated rural communities, serving as their spiritual and social center for generations.
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Related people
- · E. W. Graham
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Friendship United Methodist Church Cemetery
Davilla, TX
William T. Walker, an early settler, established a Methodist church at Friendship in 1872 and served as trustee until his 1885 death, when he became one of the first buried here. Edward Wesley Graham later deeded some five acres for church, parsonage, and burial purposes. The ground remains a record of the pioneers, veterans, and families who settled this corner of Milam County.
Lilac Cemetery
Davilla vicinity, TX
Dr. John Herndon Graves settled this Milam County area in 1858, and in 1880 his daughter and son-in-law deeded land for Lilac Baptist Church and its burial ground. The earliest marked grave, from 1870, belongs to Calvin McCormick, while Dr. Graves himself was the earliest-born of those interred. Among the graves lie veterans reaching from the Civil War and Spanish-American War through World War I and beyond, marking the community's service across generations.
Lilac
Davilla vicinity, TX
Originally called Oak Point, this Milam County farming and stockraising settlement grew up around the farm of dentist and planter Dr. John H. Graves, who arrived in 1858. It was renamed Lilac when a post office opened in 1883, and the Graves family gave land for a school, a Baptist church, and a Methodist encampment. At its peak Lilac boasted stores, a cotton gin, and a blacksmith shop, but flooding in 1921 and the Great Depression sent it into decline.
Sharp Presbyterian Church
Buckholts, TX
This Milam County congregation traces to the 1872 founding of the Mt. Herman Cumberland Presbyterian Church, which split into the Davilla and Leachville congregations in 1893. The Leachville church was renamed Sharp in 1902, the same year the present building went up—a vernacular structure with Italianate touches, a truncated tower, window hoods, and horizontal milled siding.