Vigo Park Methodist Church
Tulia, Swisher County, Texas
Marker Inscription
The Indiana-Texas Land Company planted a town at this site in 1906, naming it for adjoining counties in western Indiana. It was to be a shipping point on a new railroad line. C. R. Gardner and J. C. Stitt of Terre Haute, Indiana, built a 2-story hotel and store for the firm, and then decided to settle here. Other settlers soon arrived to join them. Methodist minister G. R. Fort crossed Tule Canyon and drove 22 miles to welcome the settlers. In June, 1907, he held a revival in a tent and organized this church. Charter members included the Crawley, Derr, Doughty, Gardner, Hay, Hedges, Hunt, Hyatt, Montgomery, Merrill, Pietzscht, Webster, and Welker families. Gardner, John Welker, and the minister visited the neighboring ranches and secured donations of money and labor to erect a church building. Trustees W. B. Doughty, Joe Hastings, and Jim Montgomery bought two lots at this site and hauled building materials from Tulia, while volunteers helped Gardner and Stitt with the construction. The church was the town's second building. For many years it was the only church in a 20-mile radius. It helped sustain Vigo Park when the railroad failed to materialize, and is still important in the life of the community. (1976)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
The Indiana-Texas Land Company laid out Vigo Park in 1906, naming it for counties back in western Indiana and betting it would become a rail shipping point. Settlers from Terre Haute built a hotel and store and stayed on, and in 1907 the Rev. G.R. Fort organized this Methodist church after a tent revival. Volunteers hauled materials from Tulia to raise the building—only the town's second—and it remained the sole church within 20 miles for years.
Why it matters
When the promised railroad never came, the church is credited with holding the fledgling community together, a common fate for speculative townsites on the West Texas plains.
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Related people
- · G.R. Fort
- · C.R. Gardner
- · J.C. Stitt
Themes & tags
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