United Methodist Church of Rhome
Rhome, Wise County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Organized in the 1880s under the direction of the Reverend F. V. Evans, this church held early services in the Prairie Point Schoolhouse, under brush arbors and in a tent. The first building was completed in 1903 from funds raised by the congregation. It was located on land conveyed by Colonel Benjamin Morris and his wife Roxana, donors of the Rhome townsite. In 1940 the congregation moved to a remodeled building that had been the chapel of an early Cumberland Presbyterian Church. Since the 1880s, members of the United Methodist Church have led in Rhome's development. (1982)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Organized in the 1880s under the Reverend F. V. Evans, this Methodist congregation first met in a schoolhouse, under brush arbors, and in a tent before completing its first building in 1903 on land given by the donors of the Rhome townsite. In 1940 it moved into a remodeled former Cumberland Presbyterian chapel, and its members long helped shape the town's growth.
Why it matters
The congregation's humble beginnings and steady endurance mirror the founding of countless small North Texas towns, where a church was often the community's first institution.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
In the 1880s, North Texas was changing fast. Railroads were spreading across the prairie, farm families were moving in, and new towns were springing up almost overnight. Wise County, northwest of Fort Worth, was part of that wave of settlement.
In a young community, a church was often one of the first institutions to take root. It usually arrived before any church building did. Methodist preachers were famous for going wherever the settlers went, and frontier congregations met wherever they could: in schoolhouses, in homes, under brush arbors made of poles and leafy branches, and in canvas tents at revival meetings.
The decades that followed brought changes to American Methodism itself. Branches that had split before the Civil War reunited in 1939. Later mergers produced the United Methodist Church, the name this congregation carries today. Across the same years, towns like Rhome grew from prairie crossroads into settled communities.
People & events
According to the marker, this congregation took shape in the 1880s under the Reverend F. V. Evans. In its first years it had no building at all. Worshippers gathered in the Prairie Point Schoolhouse, under brush arbors, and in a tent. Services like these could be lively affairs, with families coming in from the surrounding farms to sing, pray and catch up with neighbors they rarely saw.
The congregation raised the money for its first church building on its own and finished it in 1903. The land came from Colonel Benjamin Morris and his wife Roxana, the same couple who donated the Rhome townsite. Their gift tied the church into the founding of the town itself, so it's no surprise the congregation became part of the town's backbone.
In 1940 the congregation moved again, this time into a remodeled building that had once been the chapel of an early Cumberland Presbyterian church. Reusing another denomination's chapel was a practical, neighborly choice common in small towns. The marker notes that from the 1880s onward, members of this church helped lead Rhome's development.
Its place in the American story
Stories like this one repeat across small-town America. As the country filled in its western prairies in the late nineteenth century, churches gave new communities a place to gather, a moral center and often their first shared building. The move from schoolhouse, to brush arbor, to tent, to a real church marks the growth of a town as clearly as any census.
This congregation's story also shows how Methodism grew across the nation. Its traveling preachers and camp meetings helped make it one of the largest Protestant denominations in nineteenth-century America. Much of that growth came from exactly this kind of work: organizing scattered frontier families into lasting congregations.
Lastly, the church shows how much small towns depended on ordinary generosity. Land donated by a founding couple, money raised by members and a building borrowed from another denomination came together to build something that has lasted well over a century.
If you visit
This is a small-town church marker, and the pleasure of it lies in slowing down. As you stand here, picture the congregation's early days: families gathered under a brush arbor on a hot Texas evening, or crowded into a canvas tent for a revival meeting. Then think about how much work it took to raise the first real building in 1903.
Rhome is an easy stop on a drive through Wise County and the countryside north of Fort Worth. Take a little time to walk around town, and remember that the ground beneath it came from the same founding couple who gave this church its first lot.
If the church is holding services, remember that it's an active congregation, and please be respectful of worshippers. For families, it makes a nice, gentle history lesson about how frontier towns got started: a preacher, a few faithful neighbors, and a place to meet.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · F. V. Evans
- · Benjamin Morris
- · Roxana Morris
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
George Lawton Bledsoe
Aurora, TX
Georgia-born George Lawton Bledsoe, a carpenter and cotton-gin builder, came to Texas in 1834 and fought in the Texas Revolution, including the decisive Battle of San Jacinto. He earned a military pension and patented land grants across five counties as the young republic and state took shape. He is buried here alongside his daughter and a brother-in-law.
Aurora Cemetery
Aurora, TX
Aurora Cemetery holds graves dating to the 1860s and grew after Confederate veteran Finis Dudley Beauchamp donated the site to a Masonic lodge in 1877. A deadly 1891 epidemic — likely a form of meningitis — added hundreds of graves, and one poignant child's epitaph is still widely quoted. The cemetery is also famous for the legend that an airship crashed nearby in 1897 and its pilot was buried here; bypassed by the railroad, the town faded but the burial ground endures with over 800 graves.
Teague Cemetery
Aurora, TX
John Teague, a veteran of the U.S. war with Mexico, brought his family from Missouri to settle this North Texas land in 1858 and later served on the frontier during the Civil War. The burial ground that bears his name holds about thirty graves, its earliest inscribed stone marking the Rev. Jacob Moffett, killed by Indians in September 1865. When Teague moved on to Foard County in 1885, the cemetery fell out of use as other plots opened nearby.
Thurmond-Fairview Cemetery
Rhome, TX
Early families who called their Wise County home the "Illinois Settlement," later Fairview, put down roots here in the 1880s. When J. F. Thurmond's infant daughter died in 1883, neighbors chose a burial tract beside land he had already given for a church and school—part of six acres he donated to the community. Over the decades a cemetery association formed, the school consolidated and became a community center, and the graveyard, still in use, grew to more than 400 graves sustained by endowments and a gas well.