Blanco Methodist Church

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm passing it straight along to you. Way back in 1854, a man named Reverend Daniel Rawls rode into the picture. Circuit rider, Methodist, the kind of preacher who didn't wait for a congregation to come to him.

He organized what would become the Blanco Methodist Church, and he did it with six charter members. Six. You could seat them all at one kitchen table, but they were enough to get something started.

And once something gets started in Texas, it tends to stick around. For years, that little congregation gathered in a log cabin, then a frame building, making do the way people out here always made do. That went on clear through 1882.

Then they decided it was time to build something that said permanence. Something that said we are not going anywhere. So they went and got native limestone.

Hauled it ten miles from a quarry, by ox cart and wagon team. Ten miles. You think about those animals straining on that road, load after load, stone after stone, and you start to understand what kind of conviction was behind this building.

The structure went up, and in 1883 it was erected and dedicated. Now here's a detail worth slowing down for. The cornerstone on that church isn't where you'd expect it.

It's laid above the east doorway arch. Not at the base, not at the corner closest to the ground. Up high, over the door, like it's watching over every soul that walks in.

And that tower bell, the one hanging up there right now, that is the same bell installed in 1883. Same bell. It has been ringing over Blanco County since the year the building opened its doors.

That sanctuary is still serving as a church today. Some things, once they're set in limestone and hauled ten hard miles and rung in with a bell that refuses to be replaced, just endure.

What the marker says

Organized, 1854, by Rev. Daniel Rawls, Methodist circuit rider. Six charter members. Worship was held in log cabin and frame building until 1882. Present structure erected, dedicated, 1883. Still serves as church sanctuary. Native limestone hauled 10 miles from quarry by ox cart and wagon team. Unique cornerstone is laid above east doorway arch. Tower bell is same as installed in 1883. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark, 1967