Prairie Point Church and Cemetery
Kerens, Navarro County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Pioneer area settlers met in 1855 to organize a Methodist Episcopal Church, South. Five years later, the congregation built a sanctuary at this site on land donated by charter member Zachariah Westbrook (1809-1878) and his wife, Mary (Agnew) (1813-1896). The Westbrooks' donation also included the original tract of the adjacent cemetery. The earliest marked grave there is for A. J. Morgan, who died in 1871. Prairie Point Methodist Church disbanded in 1910, but the building continues in use as a community center for the surrounding rural area. Texas Sesquicentennial 1836 - 1986
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In the years before the Civil War, Methodist settlers on the Navarro County prairie gathered to form a congregation and, by 1860, raised a sanctuary on land given by one of their charter families. The adjoining burial ground took in its community for generations, and though the church itself dissolved in 1910, the sturdy frame building simply changed jobs, carrying on as a gathering place for the surrounding farms.
Why it matters
It captures how a frontier congregation could become the enduring civic heart of a rural crossroads, outliving the denomination that built it.
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Related people
- · Zachariah Westbrook
- · Mary Agnew Westbrook
Themes & tags
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