Granbury Methodist Church
Granbury, Hood County, Texas
Marker Inscription
The Rev. John R. Hill and seven charter members organized this congregation as the Granbury Methodist Episcopal Church, South, in 1871. They conducted worship services in a local schoolhouse until 1883, when they completed their first sanctuary near this site. Additional buildings were constructed over the years to meet the needs of the growing congregation. The name was changed to First United Methodist Church in 1968. Throughout its history, the congregation has served the community with a variety of worship, educational, and outreach programs. (1994)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
The Rev. John R. Hill and seven charter members gathered this Methodist congregation in 1871, in the earliest years of Hood County, worshipping in a borrowed schoolhouse until they raised their own sanctuary in 1883. As Granbury grew, so did the church, adding buildings and programs across the decades. It took the name First United Methodist Church in 1968, part of a nationwide denominational merger.
Why it matters
Frontier congregations like this were often a young Texas town's first stable institution, anchoring community life long before much else stood.
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Related people
- · John R. Hill
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Granbury Cemetery
Granbury, TX
Known as "the cemetery lot" before the town of Granbury even existed, this hillside held graves predating the city's 1866 founding, the earliest from 1853. Church leaders briefly made it the site of a high school that grew into Granbury College before the land returned to full use as a burial ground in 1915. Among those at rest are the city's namesake, Confederate Brigadier General Hiram B. Granbury, and veterans of every American conflict from the War of 1812 through Vietnam.
Nellie Gray Robertson
Granbury, TX
Born in 1894 into a struggling Hood County family, Nellie Gray Robertson entered the University of Texas in 1912 and passed the state bar in 1918, breaking into a profession then closed to women. She returned home to win election as Hood County attorney—the first woman to hold that office in Texas—and served multiple terms, and in 1925 was named to sit on an all-woman Texas Supreme Court, though she narrowly lacked the required years of practice to serve. She later wrote law books in New York and led title companies in Houston and Beaumont.
Pleasant Thorp
Thorp Spring, TX
Blacksmith Pleasant Thorp came to Texas in 1840 and, after passing through this country on the Morehouse Expedition, resolved to settle here, eventually amassing nearly 18,000 acres. Discovering sulphur springs, he set aside land for the town of Thorp Spring, and in 1871 he and Sam Milliken founded Thorp College. That early school gave way in 1873 to Add-Ran College, which moved to Waco and then Fort Worth and grew into Texas Christian University. In 1888 Thorp deeded the land around the spring to Hood County for a public park, leaving a legacy of education and community.
Add-Ran Christian College
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In 1873, J. A. Clark and his sons Addison and Randolph opened a private school at Thorp Springs, chartering it as Add-Ran Christian College and blending their sons' names into its title. The college moved to Waco in 1895 and was reestablished at Fort Worth in 1909, where it grew into Texas Christian University. Its humble beginnings in a small Hood County community launched one of the state's major universities.