Westward Expansion

Jefferson, TX

Founded in 1844 with the Rev. James Baldridge as its first pastor, this Methodist congregation replaced its log church in 1860 with what was called the most imposing brick church west of the Mississippi. Its bell, cast from 1,500 Mexican silver dollars, still rings in the present building, erected in 1884.

Alpine, TX

A circuit-riding preacher organized this Methodist congregation in the far West Texas town of Alpine in 1884, and by 1889 residents had raised an adobe church whose altar section still survives. In the sparsely settled Big Bend country, the building served not only Methodists but Baptists and Presbyterians alike, a shared house of worship on a thin frontier.

Allen, TX

On November 15, 1847, thirteen pioneers gathered in Joseph Russell's log cabin near present-day Allen to organize one of Collin County's earliest Methodist congregations, served at first by circuit-riding preachers on the far-flung Dallas circuit. As the railroad reshaped the area in the 1870s, the church followed its people, worshiping in schoolhouses and, thanks to neighborly Baptists, in borrowed pews before building its own house in 1902. Through fires, rebuildings, and a final 1966 sanctuary, the congregation endured—counting among its members Dr. Malcolm O. Perry, a surgeon who treated President Kennedy in 1963.

Alvin, TX

The circuit-riding minister Peter Nicholson founded Alvin's First Methodist Episcopal Church in 1881, its earliest services held in members' homes and the local railroad station. A first frame building went up in 1886 on lots donated by Jesse and Celia Hobbs; a brick church replaced it in 1926 — the year the women of the congregation gave a pipe organ — and a still larger sanctuary rose on this site in 1961. For more than a century the church has anchored community life through scouting, youth programs, and social ministries.

Azle, TX

The Rev. Will A. Stephens and fifteen charter members organized this Methodist congregation in 1895, buying a building from the United Brethren Church and securing a parsonage. The church called its first full-time minister in 1942, and membership more than doubled by 1946, prompting a new education building and a brick sanctuary. A 1968 denominational merger gave it the name First United Methodist Church.

Beeville, TX

In 1861, just three years after Bee County was organized, the Rev. Berry Merchant helped Beeville Methodists establish a congregation, and for years circuit-riding preachers ministered to them, often in the county's small wood-frame courthouse. The church built its first sanctuary in the early 1870s, relocated to this site in 1904, and grew steadily as Beeville became a Methodist district headquarters. Denominational mergers reshaped its name over the twentieth century.

Bronte, TX

This West Texas congregation began in the summer of 1890, when a handful of worshipers gathered under a brush arbor along East Kickapoo Creek to organize a church. They met in an old schoolhouse before raising their first sanctuary in 1907, replaced by a new building in 1951. Now First United Methodist Church, the congregation has kept a steady missionary focus across more than a century.

Canyon, TX

Methodist leaders held Canyon's earliest religious service in 1889, and that October the Rev. B. F. Jackson organized the city's first church with a handful of founding families. Jackson preached to large crowds in Palo Duro Canyon in 1890 and conducted the community's first funeral and first wedding the next year. The congregation raised its original building under its first regular pastor in 1900, as the Panhandle town itself was just taking hold.

Corpus Christi, TX

Methodist worship first came to Corpus Christi in 1846, when Rev. John Haynie preached to a settlement swelling with federal troops gathering for the Mexican War, though a formal congregation was not organized until 1853. Built on land bought from town founder Col. Henry L. Kinney, the church's early shellcrete building was the first erected by any denomination in the city and served triple duty as a community center, schoolhouse, and emergency hospital during the yellow fever epidemics of 1854 and 1867. The congregation grew alongside the city, helping spawn several other area churches before moving to Shoreline Drive in 1955.

Denton, TX

Organized by Rev. William E. Bates in 1857—the very year Denton itself was founded—this Methodist congregation first met in the log courthouse before sharing a Masonic building that doubled as school and meeting hall. From a white frame church in 1873 the congregation grew to a red brick sanctuary in 1899 and, by 1925, a building seating 2,400. Its history tracks the growth of a North Texas county-seat town from raw frontier settlement to established community.

Farmersville, TX

This Farmersville congregation grew from Methodist classes led in 1856 by the Rev. J. W. Chalk in a country schoolhouse, gathering strength through revivals and years of arbor meetings before building its first church in 1875. A grand ornate sanctuary designed by architect James Edward Flanders replaced it in 1902, only to burn in 1924; the present Greek Revival church followed in 1926. Over the decades the congregation served its town in wide-ranging ways, even lending its building as a blood-drive site and air-raid shelter during World War II.

Floydada, TX

Methodism reached Floyd County in the 1880s, when circuit-riding preachers served scattered settlers at Della Plain and held services in J.S. McLain's general store — years before Floydada or the county itself was formally organized. After the county's 1890 organization made Floydada the seat, a Methodist congregation formed, worshiping first in the schoolhouse, then in a 1902 church that was moved to this site in 1913 and replaced by brick in 1918. The congregation has served the community for more than a century.

Goldthwaite, TX

Methodism reached this part of Central Texas in the mid-1850s by way of circuit-riding preachers—among them H. Childress, the "bear-hunting preacher" who traveled armed for protection. When the Santa Fe Railway founded the town of Goldthwaite in 1885, arriving residents formed a congregation of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and completed a wood-frame sanctuary within two years. Through denominational mergers the church became First Methodist in 1939 and First United Methodist in 1968.

Groesbeck, TX

The Rev. Mordecai Yell led Groesbeck's first Methodist services in 1871, the year this congregation formed, gathering at first in a community building on North Waco Street. A sanctuary rose on Trinity Street in 1879, and by 1893 the church had grown large enough to call a full-time pastor, moving to this site a decade later. Through the years it backed missionary work at home and abroad while anchoring local community life.

Hallettsville, TX

Methodist circuit riders reached this area as early as 1842, and by 1851 eleven charter members had formed a congregation that worshipped in brush arbors, homes, a schoolhouse, courthouse, and the local Masonic Lodge Hall. The church met in the Lodge Hall until completing its first sanctuary in 1891, later adding a parsonage and educational building. Closely tied to sister churches in Shiner and Mossy Grove, it has counted many of Hallettsville's leading citizens among its members.

Holliday, TX

Methodist circuit-riding preachers were already serving this corner of Archer County by 1889, and formal church records for Holliday begin in 1892 under its first pastor, R.P. McElwreath. Ten acres deeded to the church became known as the Holliday Campground, and around 1900 members — led by the efforts of James Madison Taylor — raised the first frame church. That wooden building came down in the 1920s, replaced by a brick sanctuary in 1927.

Hubbard, TX

Hubbard's first church congregation organized in 1882 with seventeen charter members, meeting in a frame sanctuary built in 1891. In 1911 they replaced it with this imposing brick building by the Dallas firm Flanders and Flanders, whose strong horizontal lines and geometric detailing show the influence of the Prairie School. Twin towers and more than a hundred stained-glass windows make it a landmark of the Hill County town.

Lockney, TX

This Lockney congregation dates to 1890, when Rev. R.M. Morris gathered about twenty-five Methodists to organize a new church on the Texas Panhandle frontier. Members worshiped in the local schoolhouse and under brush arbors until a frame sanctuary was finished in 1908, replaced by a larger brick building in 1920. A new facility followed in the 1950s as the congregation grew and took up community and missionary work.

Lubbock, TX

This Methodist congregation dates to 1892, when circuit-riding minister R.M. Morris and twelve charter members organized a church in the fledgling town of Lubbock. Early services met in the schoolhouse and county courthouse before the arrival of the city's first resident Methodist pastor in 1900 and the building of a first sanctuary in 1904. As Lubbock grew into the hub of the South Plains, the church rebuilt and expanded to keep pace.

Mesquite, TX

Methodist worship began near Mesquite in 1857, before the town existed, when circuit rider W. K. Masten led services in a local schoolhouse. Formally organized by 1863 as the First Methodist Episcopal Church, South, the congregation received land from charter members John and Lucy Futrell in 1880 and raised a frame church that anchored the growing downtown. Denominational mergers reshaped its name over the decades, and it grew into a series of ever-larger sanctuaries.

Oglesby, TX

This congregation was organized in 1891 as the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and counted 56 members in its first year under its first pastor. An early building was destroyed by a tornado in 1893, and its replacement gave way in 1912 to this late Victorian Queen Anne church with a central gable and twin bell towers. For generations the congregation funded missionaries abroad through an annual harvest festival.

Overton, TX

This congregation dates to 1873, when members of the nearby Jamestown church helped found a new fellowship in Overton, raising a small frame building from lumber hauled in by wagon. Successive sanctuaries followed in 1932 and 1969, the last preserving stained-glass windows from the earlier structure. For more than a century the church has served this Rusk County community.

Palestine, TX

Methodism took root in Palestine, Texas, through classes organized in 1840 and gathered strength after the town became the Anderson County seat in 1846, aided by organizer Louisiana Catherine "Aunt Bee" Small. The community's first church, Bascom Chapel, rose in 1850 and served as the town's sole house of worship for years before a congregational split around 1900 produced the First Methodist Church, which built here in 1910. Women's missionary work has been part of the church's life since its earliest decades.

Pittsburg, TX

Organized in 1857 by Rev. J.W. Harvey Hamill, this congregation counted among its charter members the family of Major W.H. Pitts, for whom Pittsburg was named. Worshipers moved from a log structure to a shared two-story frame building with the Masonic Lodge, then to a larger frame sanctuary in 1888–89, and finally to the brick prairie-style church built in 1904–05. By its 1957 centennial the membership had grown to 546.

Plano, TX

By oral tradition this congregation began about 1846–47, when thirteen Peters Colony settlers gathered in the home of Joseph and Elizabeth Russell to organize a Methodist church on the North Texas frontier. The worshippers followed the growing community—first to a Spring Creek schoolhouse, then into the new railroad town of Plano after 1874—and became a full station in 1888. Generations of church buildings and outreach programs trace the town's growth from prairie settlement to modern suburb.

Richland, TX

Founded in 1847 on what was then remote Texas frontier through the labors of the Rev. J. E. Ferguson and the Rev. J. G. Hardin, this Methodist congregation has worshipped continuously ever since. In 1966 the American Association of Methodist Historical Societies recognized Richland as the oldest continuing congregation in the Central Texas Annual Conference. Its long survival testifies to the endurance of frontier faith communities.

Robert Lee, TX

Organized in 1891 as settlers were still putting down roots in the ranch country of west-central Texas, this Methodist congregation grew through three successive sanctuaries. The frame buildings of 1896 and 1907 gave way in 1928 to the present Classical Revival structure, with its art-glass windows and triumphal-arch entry marking a young town's investment in permanence.

Rocksprings, TX

This Rocksprings congregation grew from religious gatherings led by the Rev. D.O. McAllister in an 1893 schoolhouse, with early support ranging from landowners to local saloon keepers who gave buckets of silver dollars. Its first church rose about 1900 and served the whole community until the devastating 1927 storm destroyed the building and killed the minister and his wife. The congregation rebuilt within a year and went on to support missions as far away as Korea and Zaire.

Silverton, TX

Organized as a Sunday school in 1891, the First Methodist Church of Silverton grew up with its Panhandle town. Its first pastor, the Rev. W.B. Ford, rode a circuit and preached here once a month, and early services filled a grocery store, a one-room schoolhouse, and the courthouse until the first sanctuary was finished in 1902. A replacement sanctuary, built in 1929 using some of the original materials, and later additions housed the growing congregation.

Stephenville, TX

Organized in 1855 with ten charter members, this Methodist congregation grew up alongside the frontier town of Stephenville, first meeting in the Masonic lodge on the town square. An 1890s sanctuary gave way in 1917 to the present Beaux Arts building, with its giant Corinthian columns and art-glass windows.

Texas City, TX

This congregation grew from informal Methodist gatherings among families newly arrived to Texas City in 1894, becoming the town's first organized church two years later. When the 1900 Galveston hurricane leveled much of the area, the congregation rebuilt; a split between "northern" and "southern" Methodist factions in 1907 spawned a rival church that eventually outgrew its parent, before the two reunited in 1938 to form First Methodist.

Trenton, TX

In 1887 worshippers gathered at Trenton's Union Church to organize the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, with the Rev. W. J. Bludworth as first pastor. By the time the first sanctuary was built in 1896, the congregation numbered about 200 and had formed groups for youth, women, and men. As the North Texas farming town grew, so did the church, which has served the community for well over a century.

Tulia, TX

In 1891 a handful of Methodists organized this congregation on the raw Panhandle plains, worshipping in the town's one-room schoolhouse alongside Baptists and Presbyterians. With community labor and lumber hauled all the way from Amarillo, they raised Tulia's first church building in 1897, which neighboring congregations also used until they built their own. The church grew with the town, adding a sanctuary in 1929 and taking its United Methodist name after a 1968 merger.

Turkey, TX

On a September day in 1891, a circuit-era minister and seven charter members gathered in a Hall County home to organize a Methodist congregation on the Texas Panhandle plains. For years they worshiped in homes and a community schoolhouse before raising a frame sanctuary in 1907, only to see a 1928 tornado level it — after which they simply built a basement and kept meeting until an above-ground church was finished in 1948. The congregation's endurance through storm and hardship mirrors the grit of the ranching country around Turkey.

Valley Mills, TX

Methodism reached this corner of Bosque County in the 1840s, when circuit-riding preachers held camp meetings on a nearby farm. After the railroad pulled Valley Mills south of the river in 1889, the congregation built its first church, then voted to move downtown, completing this brick sanctuary by 1916. Its temple-front entries with Ionic columns, art-glass windows, and pressed-metal roof mark it as a proud small-town landmark.

Wellington, TX

Organized in 1890 by the Rev. J. H. Linderman and a handful of charter members, this Wellington congregation took root in a raw Panhandle county where the first worship services shared a small wooden building that also served as the first courthouse. The faithful met in a schoolhouse through the 1890s until their first sanctuary was finished in 1899, replaced by a larger one in 1913 as the congregation grew. By 1984 it stood as the only Methodist church in the county.

Winters, TX

In the young ranching town of Winters, on the West Texas rolling plains, a Methodist congregation organized in 1891 and worshipped for eight years in the shared local schoolhouse before raising its first frame church on this corner in 1899 under pioneer circuit rider John Wesley Bowden. A distinctive open-sided tabernacle followed in 1911, catching summer breezes and hosting revivals and town gatherings for decades. The marker's most memorable episode came in 1925, when parishioners literally laid $8,500.50 in cash on a barrelhead one Sunday to retire the new brick church's debt.

Frankfort, KY

Methodism reached Frankfort early: the 1790 conference folded the then-frontier station into the Lexington Circuit, and by 1821 Rev. William Holman had organized the town's First Methodist congregation, whose first small church stood on Ann Street. The present site was purchased in 1856 and its building completed in 1858. Bishops H.H. Kavanaugh and E.I. Tullis both served here as pastors.

Jermyn, TX

The First Methodist Church of Jermyn was organized in November 1909 in the young Jack County town's very first house, the home of Mr. and Mrs. W. T. Jones. As the first congregation in the area, it built its sanctuary the following year at First Avenue and Wise Street. The founding trustees were among the settlers establishing civic and religious life on the North Texas frontier.

Farmers Branch, TX

When Isaac Blackman Webb moved his family from Missouri into the Peters Colony in the winter of 1843–44, he sent for a missionary, and in March 1844 the first known Methodist minister to visit the colony preached in a nearby log cabin. A society formed in 1845, and by 1846 an 18-by-18-foot log cabin rose on Webb's land as the colony's first church—doubling as schoolhouse, meeting hall, and post office. The congregation, now Webb Chapel United Methodist Church, claims continuous services since 1845.

Junction, TX

Pennsylvania-born brothers Henry and Adam Murr came west as U.S. Army soldiers, and after their honorable discharges at Fort McKavett in the 1880s they settled on the creeks of Kimble County. Buying land in 1895 and 1901, they founded the Murr community and helped build up the county's ranching economy. Their descendants still run Murr Ranches today.

Cisco, TX

Two days before Christmas in 1927, a man dressed as Santa Claus and three accomplices robbed this bank of cash and securities, then fled amid a gun battle, dragging two little girls along as hostages. A three-day manhunt followed the notorious "Santa Claus Bank Robbery": the children and money were recovered and the robbers caught, but six people died and eight were wounded. "Santa" himself was later lynched by a mob after breaking out of jail.

Glen Rose, TX

A. P. Humphreys built this hand-hewn native stone structure in Glen Rose in 1896 as a saloon, with a lodge hall upstairs hosting dances, socials, and stage shows. In 1902 the First National Bank moved in, counting among its customers the trail-blazing cattleman Col. Charles Goodnight. The building saw a dramatic 1917 robbery in which one bandit was shot.

Big Spring, TX

Chartered in 1890 with $50,000 in capital, the First National Bank of Big Spring opened on the ground floor of a downtown building that also housed the post office. A rival, West Texas National Bank, followed in 1903, and both prospered through the boom years of the 1920s before the Great Depression brought hard times. The two institutions merged in 1934 to become the First National Bank in Big Spring.

Floydada, TX

Rooted in the James B. Posey Bank of the 1890s, this institution became the Floyd County Bank in 1900 and, after winning a federal charter in 1903, the First National Bank. Its early stockholders were a roll call of Floyd County's founding businessmen, and it has stood on this site since 1912. Through boom and drought it helped finance the growth of the surrounding High Plains farm country.

Crowell, TX

In April 1891 a legislative committee gathered in old Margaret to organize Foard County, dividing it into four precincts and holding an election that filled every office from judge and sheriff to the animal-and-hide inspector. The roll of first officials preserved here is a snapshot of self-government arriving on the West Texas plains. Such organizing meetings were the moment a stretch of open country became a functioning county.

Steilacoom, WA

When this courthouse rose in 1859, Washington was still a raw territory two years from statehood conversations and decades from becoming a state. Pierce County was organizing its civic life on the Puget Sound frontier, and a permanent courthouse signaled that law, records, and local government had taken root in Steilacoom, one of the territory's earliest American towns. The building served for over seventy years before it was razed in 1932, and pioneer descendants set this marker in 1962 to keep its footprint remembered.

Junction, TX

Junction's first post office opened in 1876 under postmaster Harriet Kountz, who at first simply kept the mail at home. In 1879 her husband, Dr. Ezekiel Kountz, built a post office, drugstore, and mercantile on the square using lumber hauled from Austin, and the building also served as the county's first offices. The old store stood until it was dismantled in 1911.

Upson County, GA

In the early 1800s the Old Federal Road cut through the Georgia backcountry, opening a corridor for mail riders, stagecoaches, and settlers pushing into lands that had until recently been Creek and Cherokee territory. The little community of The Rock, in what became Upson County, earned a place on that route when it received its first post office in 1816 — a modest but vital link that tied an isolated frontier settlement into the young nation's growing web of communication and travel.

Midland, TX

When Midland's first post office opened on January 4, 1884, with Charles H. Welch as postmaster, settlers wanted to call the town Midway because it stood halfway between Fort Worth and El Paso. Learning that name was already taken, they settled on Midland instead. The office moved four times before returning in 1974 to its original site at 108 East Missouri, by which point it served a postal region of some 32,000 square miles.

San Angelo, TX

San Angelo grew up beside Fort Concho on the West Texas frontier, and in 1885 the Presbytery sent the Rev. J. H. Zivley to gather its scattered Presbyterians, who first met in a borrowed Methodist building. A handful of charter members bought a corner lot for $500 and raised a modest sanctuary designed by noted regional architect Oscar Ruffini; a larger brick church followed between 1906 and 1908. Women's societies and a Sunday school carried much of the congregation's early life.

Belton, TX

On the eve of the Civil War in October 1860, the Rev. Levi Tenney gathered eight founding members into a Presbyterian congregation at Belton. After meeting in borrowed spaces, the church built its first home in 1879 and relocated twice more across the growing town over the next century. Alongside its Presbyterian mission work, members have long joined community efforts such as Helping Hands Ministry and Meals on Wheels.

Paris, TX

Organized in 1861 by the Rev. John Anderson, Paris's First Presbyterian congregation worshiped first in an Odd Fellows seminary and a downtown shop before building its first sanctuary in 1874. The present church, designed by architects L. B. Volk and Son and built in 1891, is a Romanesque building of Carthage stone with stained-glass windows imported from Belgium. Inside, a cruciform auditorium rises beneath a wooden ribbed vault of beaded boards.

Lampasas, TX

Growing out of Presbyterian mission work in 1877, this Lampasas congregation formally organized in 1881 with just seven members and called its first pastor the following year. Across the decades it built and rebuilt sanctuaries, gained state recognition, and, aided by the Senterfitt estate, erected a new sanctuary in 1959. The congregation marked its centennial in 1981 by publishing its own history.

Denison, TX

When the Presbyterian Board of Home Missions sent Reverend Josiah Milligan to the young railroad town of Denison, he began holding services in his own living room, organizing this congregation in December 1872 with a handful of charter members. From a borrowed town hall the church moved to donated land and a frame sanctuary, weathering a fire, rebuildings, and a new mid-century sanctuary. Its members long served the town — the church women famously met wartime troop trains at the Katy depot with sandwiches and coffee.

Bryan, TX

Organized in 1867 in the Presbytery of Brazos, this was among the earliest denominational congregations in the young railroad town of Bryan. Members built their own first sanctuary in 1871 — an effort the Synod praised as a model — and worshiped in a brick successor before moving to the present site and completing today's sanctuary in 1966.

Karnes City, TX

Karnes City's first building raised for Protestant worship housed a congregation that began in 1894 as a mission under the Helena Presbyterians and was organized the next year with fourteen members. The Rev. H. R. Laird, an evangelist of the Western Texas Presbytery, led its founding, and the church building was finished in June 1901. The congregation marked its 75th anniversary in 1970.

Galveston, TX

Founded on New Year's Day 1840 in an old schoolhouse called the "Academy," First Presbyterian Church took root in Galveston when Texas was still an independent republic. Its congregation raised a first building by 1843 and the present sanctuary between 1872 and 1889, a structure that survived the great fire of 1885 and even sheltered burned-out schools afterward. Battered by decades of Gulf storms, it was heavily damaged by Hurricane Carla in 1961 and restored the next year.

Colorado City, TX

On a January Sunday in 1881, a Presbyterian minister preached the first sermon ever heard in the tent town of Colorado City — inside a saloon, its bar draped in wagon sheets, with a collection taken up afterward. From a dugout floored with corn sacks the congregation grew, moving through tents and schoolhouses to permanent brick sanctuaries.

White Deer, TX

Dedicated on July 4, 1909, this was the first church building in the Panhandle town of White Deer, paid for largely by gifts from pioneer members' home churches and neighbors of other faiths. For eleven years Presbyterians, Methodists, and Baptists shared it, their circuit pastors taking turns on Sundays and splitting the offerings three ways. It served as a house of worship until 1969 and was moved from this site in 1978.