Site of First Methodist Annual Conference in Texas
La Grange, Fayette County, Texas
Marker Inscription
The Rev. Martin Ruter (1785-1838) came to Texas as a missionary for the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1837. A town called Rutersville and Rutersville College, both located here, were named in his honor. Bishop Beverly Waugh arrived in Galveston in early December 1840. His mission was to visit Texas Methodists and to assemble and organize the first annual conference. Accompanied by Thomas O. Summers, Waugh traveled to Austin, where on December 20 he preached in the Capitol. Bishop Waugh arrived in Rutersville on Christmas Eve, and on Christmas Day he called the conference into session at Rutersville College. During the four day meeting the delegates elected Thomas O. Summers secretary of the conference, heard reports of the nine preachers present, admitted four new preachers, and ordained two deacons. The Texas Missionary Society also met, and plans were made for the second annual conference to be held in San Augustine in 1841. Following its humble beginnings here in 1840, the Texas conference of the Methodist Church grew steadily, eventually to include additional annual conferences within the state.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In December 1840, in the young Republic of Texas, Bishop Beverly Waugh journeyed from Galveston to the college town of Rutersville—named for the pioneer Methodist missionary Martin Ruter—to organize the first annual conference of the Methodist Church in Texas. On Christmas Day he called the delegates into session at Rutersville College, where they heard reports from nine preachers, admitted four more, and ordained two deacons. From these humble beginnings the Texas Methodist conference grew steadily across the state.
Why it matters
It marks the institutional founding of one of the largest Protestant denominations in Texas, showing how organized religion took root alongside the new Republic.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
In 1840 Texas was an independent nation. The Republic of Texas had won its independence from Mexico only four years earlier, and its government was new, poor, and still finding its footing. Austin had only just become the capital, a raw frontier town on the edge of settled land.
Under Mexican rule, Protestant churches had been unable to organize openly. Independence changed that. Protestant preachers, including Methodist circuit riders, streamed in to serve the settlers pouring into the new republic. They preached in cabins, under trees, and in whatever buildings they could find.
The Methodists were especially suited to frontier life. Their system of traveling preachers, organized into circuits and overseen by bishops, could follow settlers wherever they went. What they needed in Texas was a formal structure, and that is what came together here.
People & events
The story begins with the Rev. Martin Ruter, who arrived in Texas in 1837 as a missionary for the Methodist Episcopal Church. He died the next year, but his work left an impression. A town called Rutersville and a school called Rutersville College, both on this site, were named in his honor.
In early December 1840, Bishop Beverly Waugh landed at Galveston. His task was to visit the Methodists of Texas and organize them into their first annual conference. Traveling with Thomas O. Summers, he went to Austin, where on December 20 he preached in the Capitol of the young republic. On Christmas Eve he reached Rutersville.
On Christmas Day he opened the conference at Rutersville College. Over four days the delegates elected Summers as secretary, heard reports from the nine preachers present, admitted four new preachers, and ordained two deacons. The Texas Missionary Society also met, and the group made plans to hold the next conference at San Augustine in 1841. It was a small gathering, but a founding one.
Its place in the American story
Throughout the 19th century, Methodism was one of the fastest-growing religious movements in America, carried west by circuit riders who followed the frontier. This meeting marks the moment that movement put down formal roots in Texas. From here the Texas conference grew steadily, eventually dividing into several conferences within the state.
The Rutersville conference also shows how closely religion and education were linked on the frontier. Churches founded many of America's early colleges, and holding the conference at a college named for a missionary shows how seriously these early Methodists took schooling alongside preaching.
Finally, it is a reminder that Texas was once its own country. When Bishop Waugh preached in the Capitol, he was preaching in the seat of a foreign republic. Within a few years Texas would join the United States, and Texas Methodism would grow alongside the state.
If you visit
Very little physical evidence of the frontier college survives, so this is a place for imagination. Picture a small gathering of preachers, many of them worn from riding long circuits, meeting on Christmas Day 1840 to organize a church in a new nation. That humble start is the whole point of this marker.
Notice the Christmas timing. Bishop Waugh arrived on Christmas Eve and opened the conference on Christmas Day. For the delegates, that date surely carried meaning, and it gives the site a quiet appeal if you visit during the holiday season.
Rutersville is just outside La Grange in Fayette County, in the rolling country between Austin and Houston. It makes a good stop on a drive through this historic region, where you can explore La Grange and the surrounding towns. It's worth a stop for anyone interested in how churches and schools helped shape early Texas.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
- · Martin Ruter
- · Beverly Waugh
- · Thomas O. Summers
Related events
- · First Methodist Annual Conference in Texas (1840)
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Rutersville College
Rutersville, TX
Recommended in 1837 by the Methodist missionary Martin Ruter and chartered in 1840, Rutersville College was the first institution of higher learning in Texas. The young Republic of Texas granted it four leagues of land, and the school educated more than 800 students before merging in 1856 into the Texas Monument and Military Institute. It stands at the very beginning of higher education on Texas soil.
Rutersville
Rutersville, TX
Founded in 1838 on the recommendation of pioneer Methodist missionary Dr. Martin Ruter, this Fayette County town was named for him after he died, worn out by his Texas travels, that same year. In 1840 the Republic of Texas chartered Rutersville College here — the Republic's first Protestant college — open to families of all faiths. Students were known for interrupting classes to pursue Indian raiders, and after the Civil War German immigrants bought up the town, their descendants living here still.
Asa Hill of Rutersville
Rutersville, TX
Asa Hill came to Texas in 1835 and served the young republic in 1836, riding ahead of the enemy to warn settlers in the army's path. In 1842 he and two sons joined the ill-fated Mier Expedition into Mexico, where Hill drew a white bean in Santa Anna's deadly lottery and escaped execution, though he languished in prison until 1843; his youngest son, John C.C., was famously adopted by Santa Anna himself. Hill settled at Rutersville, enrolling eight children in its pioneering college before his death in 1844.
Oldenburg
Oldenburg, TX
On land first granted to Nathaniel Townsend in 1838, immigrants August Heintze and Gus Steenken founded this Fayette County community in 1885 and named it for their German hometown of Oldenburg. Settled largely by Germans and Bohemians, it grew to include stores, saloons, a cotton gin, churches, dance halls, and schools—among them the German and Bohemian Oldenburg School and, by about 1930, a separate school for Black students. Though the schools consolidated away in 1944, descendants of those early settlers still live nearby.