Site of Bruceville Methodist Church
Bruceville, McLennan County, Texas
Marker Inscription
According to local tradition this congregation traces its beginning to the Cedar Bridge Methodist Church, which held services just prior to the Civil War in a sanctuary near a cedar bridge constructed by pioneer settler E.T. Cox. Members of Cedar Bridge Methodist reportedly organized a Methodist church in nearby Mastersville in 1863. Local tradition claims the 1863 Mastersville Methodist Church is the parent church of Bruceville Methodist Church. The earliest record of Mastersville Methodist is an 1865 notice of Rev. J.L. Crabb's selection as pastor. Soon after the Missouri, Kansas, and Texas railroad extended its track through here in 1881 many of Mastersville's citizens and businesses moved to be near railroad. The town which developed was officially named Bruceville with the granting of a post office in 1887. It was named for Dr. Lucien N. Bruce, on whose land the railroad depot was built. The first Bruceville Methodist Church sanctuary was built sometime during the 1880s. A new church building, erected at this site in 1895, served the congregation until 1983 when Bruceville Methodist Church merged with the nearby Eddy Methodist Church. The Bruceville Methodist Church building was later razed.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Local tradition traces this Methodist congregation back to the pre–Civil War Cedar Bridge Church and a church organized in nearby Mastersville around 1863. When the Missouri, Kansas and Texas railroad pushed through in 1881, Mastersville's people and businesses moved to be near the tracks, and the resulting town was named Bruceville after Dr. Lucien N. Bruce. The congregation built here in 1895 and worshiped until it merged with a neighboring church in 1983, after which the old sanctuary was razed.
Why it matters
Its wandering history shows how the coming of the railroad could pick up an entire community and relocate it, reshaping the map of rural Texas.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Lucien N. Bruce
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Bruceville Baptist Church
Bruceville, TX
Organized around 1870-71 as Salem Baptist Church in the town of Mastersville, this congregation first met in a minister's home and a brush arbor. As the railroad reshaped the region, the church followed its people two miles south to the new rail town of Bruceville, building a sanctuary in 1896 that served until a new one replaced it in 1975.
Martin Irons
Bruceville, TX
A Scottish-born machinist, Martin Irons became one of the most prominent labor leaders of Gilded Age America. As chairman of the executive committee of the Knights of Labor's District Assembly 101, he led the great 1886 strike against Jay Gould's southwestern railroads. When the violent strike collapsed he was blacklisted, retiring near Bruceville but remaining active in reform until his death.
Lorena Cemetery
Lorena, TX
Lorena Cemetery was set aside in 1881 by pioneer Daniel Aerl just as railroad financier Gen. Grenville M. Dodge bought sixty acres and platted a town along his Missouri, Kansas and Texas line. Dodge named the village for Lorena Westbrook Robertson, a local landowner's daughter who is buried here, and the ground fills with the graves of pioneer families, community founders, and veterans, its earliest burials the infant Lemuel Crook and young Jacky Pool.
Bull Hide Creek Iron Bridge
Lorena, TX
Erected in 1914 over Bull Hide Creek at Winan's Crossing, this 69-foot Warren pony truss bridge was built by the El Paso Bridge and Iron Company with a timber deck and concrete piers. For most of the twentieth century it linked the rural Mabel, Levi, and Cottonwood communities. It stands as a fine surviving example of early metal-truss road engineering.