Van United Methodist Church
Van, Van Zandt County, Texas
Marker Inscription
VAN UNITED METHODIST CHURCH IN 1885, A GROUP OF AREA CHRISTIANS ESTABLISHED A CONGREGATION IN THE COMMUNITY OF SWINDALL (LATER VAN) BECAUSE OF THE DIFFICULTY IN TRAVELING TO CHURCHES IN SURROUNDING SETTLEMENTS. ORIGINALLY NAMED ANTIOCH CHURCH, MEMBERS FIRST MET UNDER A BRUSH ARBOR, USING THE COMMUNITY SCHOOL DURING POOR WEATHER. IN 1891, GEORGE AND LIZZIE SWINDALL, THE COMMUNITY NAMESAKES, DEEDED PROPERTY ACROSS FROM THE SCHOOL TO THE CHURCH, AND MEMBERS SOON BUILT A SANCTUARY. THE REV. S. N. ALLEN WAS THE FIRST CIRCUIT RIDING PREACHER TO PASTOR THE CHURCH, WHICH HOSTED COMMUNITY EVENTS IN ADDITION TO WORSHIP SERVICES. THE ORIGINAL STRUCTURE WAS REPLACED IN 1910. IN 1929, OIL WAS DISCOVERED IN VAN, WHICH LED TO A POPULATION BOOM. CHURCH MEMBERSHIP ALSO INCREASED AND IN 1931, AN OIL WELL WAS DRILLED ON CHURCH PROPERTY. THE REV. JOHN W. MILLS, JR. BECAME THE CONGREGATION’S FIRST FULL-TIME PASTOR THAT SAME YEAR. IN 1936, CONSTRUCTION WAS COMPLETED ON A THREE-STORY BRICK STRUCTURE. ADDITIONAL ADJOINING PROPERTY WAS PURCHASED IN 1955 AND 1972, AND IN 1987, A FOURTH CHURCH BUILDING WAS CONSTRUCTED ON THE ORIGINAL SITE. VAN UNITED METHODIST CHURCH HAS A RICH HISTORY OF COMMUNITY OUTREACH. MEMBERS HAVE OFFERED MEALS TO THE NEEDY, TAUGHT ENGLISH LANGUAGE CLASSES, OFFERED EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS TO CHILDREN, VISITED NURSING HOMES AND THE HOMEBOUND, AND HOSTED VARIOUS ORGANIZATIONS’ MEETINGS. TODAY, MORE THAN 125 YEARS AFTER ITS ESTABLISHMENT, THE CHURCH CONTINUES TO MEET THE SPIRITUAL AND PHYSICAL NEEDS OF THE VAN COMMUNITY. 175 YEARS OF TEXAS INDEPENDENCE * 1836-2011
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Founded in 1885 as Antioch Church in the community of Swindall, later Van, this Methodist congregation first met under a brush arbor and in the community school before the Swindall family deeded it land for a sanctuary. Everything changed in 1929 when oil was discovered at Van, touching off a population boom; the church even had a well drilled on its property and soon called its first full-time pastor. Successive buildings, including a three-story brick structure in 1936, kept pace with the growing oil-field town.
Why it matters
The church's fortunes rose with the East Texas oil boom, illustrating how a single discovery could transform a quiet farming settlement and the institutions at its heart.
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Related people
- · George Swindall
- · Lizzie Swindall
- · S.N. Allen
Related events
- · Discovery of the Van oil field, 1929
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Van School, 1929-1947
Van, TX
The 1929 discovery of the Van oil field swelled the local school from a five-room country building into a modern campus within a few years. While Depression- and war-era districts elsewhere slashed budgets, oil revenues let Van expand rapidly—enrollment leapt from 90 students in 1929 to 611 the next year—adding brick elementary and high schools, a gymnasium, buses, an athletic park, and a teachers' home. The Pure Oil Company aided the boom with free water and gas and a cash donation, and building continued through World War II.
Van Common School
Van, TX
Van Common School was formed in 1916 by merging the Swindall and Spring Hill schools, with neighbors hauling 114 wagonloads of building materials thirteen miles from the Grand Saline railhead to hold down costs. It opened with 95 students and four teachers and served the rural community until fire destroyed it in 1928; residents quickly funded and rebuilt on the same site. Then, in October 1929, the discovery of oil less than a mile away transformed the district and the whole community almost overnight.
Pure Oil Company Camp
Van, TX
When Pure Oil Company geologists struck oil on W.T. Jarman's farm on October 14, 1929, the Van field roared to life just as the Great Depression settled over the rest of the country. Holding most of the leases, Pure Oil built a self-contained company camp of houses, bunkhouses, a laboratory, machine shop, mess hall, and even a swimming pool to run the field and house its workers. A railroad spur completed in 1930 removed the last barrier to the town's boom, and the field still produces oil today.
Morgan G. Sanders
Ben Wheeler, TX
Born near Ben Wheeler, Morgan Gurley Sanders published newspapers and clerked for the state senate before building a long career in Texas and national politics. A Democrat, he served in the state legislature, as county and district attorney, and for nearly two decades in the U.S. Congress, where Speaker John Nance Garner placed him on the powerful Ways and Means Committee in 1931. Defeated in 1938, he remained an active figure in Van Zandt County until his death.