Alexander Methodist Chapel

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Out here in Brazos County, some stories start with a single man on horseback, and this is one of them. His name was Robert Alexander, a Circuit Rider, and in 1854 he organized what would become Alexander Methodist Chapel.

Now, a circuit rider didn't stay put. He moved. He covered ground.

And whatever ground Robert Alexander covered in 1854, he left something behind that outlasted the riding. Two years later, in 1856, the early settlers got to work. George Fullerton, Hugh Henry, Jim Walker, John Walker, E.W.

Thompson, and others whose names time has softened, they raised the first church by hand, from hand-hewn logs. Think about that for a moment. Every beam shaped by the hands of the people who needed the building.

That first church didn't come from a catalog. It came from a community. And that community had land to stand on, thanks to two people: Eliz Boatwright and John Singleton, who donated ten acres of church land.

That land was deeded to five trustees, James Walker, William Lawrence, John B. Wallace, William Glass, and Harvey Mitchell, men who accepted the weight of holding something sacred in trust. The years kept moving, the way they do.

In 1908, under Pastor W.D. Gardner, a second church rose to replace the first. Then in 1939, a third church was built, Pastor Willard Smith at the helm.

Three churches on the same ground. The first hewn by hand in 1856, and a congregation still standing in 1939 because, way back in 1854, one man on a horse stopped long enough to organize something that refused to quit.

What the marker says

Organized in 1854 by Robert Alexander, Circuit Rider. First church built of hand-hewn logs in 1856 by early settlers, George Fullerton, Hugh Henry, Jim Walker, John Walker, E.W. Thompson and others. Ten acres of church land donated by Eliz Boatwright and John Singleton was deeded to the following trustees: James Walker, William Lawrence, John B. Wallace, William Glass and Harvey Mitchell. Second church was built in 1908 - W.D. Gardner, Pastor. Third church was built in 1939 - Willard Smith, Pastor.