DUANE
Get the App
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm happy to pass it along. Back in 1869, Richard and Susan Gowan made a decision that would echo across more than a century of Navarro County life. They gave a piece of land, right there on Rush Creek, one mile southeast of where we're talking about now, and they said: put a church here.
And a cemetery. Gowan, his neighbors, and others got to work, and what they raised up was a white frame chapel, modest and clean, built to serve double duty as a house of worship and a schoolhouse. Now that building had a journey ahead of it.
In 1887, it was moved to Blooming Grove itself. The congregation didn't stop there. By 1893, they had built a second sanctuary, this time on the present site, planting roots they clearly intended to keep.
Then came something that tells you just how serious this community was about its future. From 1899 to 1913, the Methodist denomination operated Central Texas College right there in Blooming Grove, and that college, the marker is clear about this, increased the work of this church. That overlap of higher education and congregational life was no small thing.
And then there are two names worth lingering on. Dr. Clovis Chappell, born in 1882 and living all the way to 1972, and Dr.
E. B. Hawk, born in 1881 and passing in 1963.
Both men served as pastors here. Both would go on to win national renown. And in 1913, it was these two who led the effort to build the present edifice, the very building that still stands.
Twenty-two men from this congregation went on to enter the ministry. One country chapel on Rush Creek, one gift of land from Richard and Susan Gowan, and look at what grew from it.
What the marker says
In 1869, Richard and Susan Gowan gave land on Rush Creek (1 mile southeast) for a Methodist Church and cemetery. Gowan, his neighbors, and others built a white frame chapel for church and school. That building was moved to Blooming Grove in 1887. Second sanctuary was built in 1893 on the present site. The Methodist denomination operated (1899-1913) Central Texas College in Blooming Grove, increasing work of this church. Dr. Clovis Chappell (1882-1972) and Dr. E. B. Hawk (1881-1963), pastors who later won national renown, led in building (1913) the present edifice. The congregation has given 22 men to the ministry. (1974)