DUANE
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Duane's take
The way the official marker tells it, here's the story of the Buda United Methodist Church. Now, picture 1880. The railroad has just come through, and a new town is still finding its footing, still going by the name DuPre.
And right there at the very beginning, before DuPre even had a proper name most folks would remember, a church was already taking root. It was established that same year the rail lines were completed, 1880, under the leadership of the Reverend Thomas Garrett. And Reverend Garrett was not a man who waited for a building to do his work.
He was one of the pioneer Methodist circuit riders, the kind of preacher who showed up on horseback, conducted services under open sky, and held camp meetings out in the country around Mountain City, just two miles to the west. That's the kind of foundation this congregation was built on. Not bricks.
Not mortar. A man riding a circuit and a community willing to gather. Now, the first sanctuary, an actual building at this site, that came in 1882.
Two years after the church was established, they finally had a place to put a roof over the whole thing. And the people who filled those pews were not strangers to hard times and new beginnings. Members of the congregation included many of the pioneer settlers of the area and prominent leaders of what was by then becoming the town of Buda.
The name DuPre didn't stick, but the church did. And that, by any measure, is a story worth telling on a Texas road.
What the marker says
This church was established in 1880 under the leadership of the rev. Thomas Garrett, one of the pioneer Methodist circuit riders who conducted early services and camp meetings in the area around Mountain City (2 mi. W). It was the first church in the new railroad town of DuPre, later known as Buda, which began here soon after rail lines were completed the same year. The first sanctuary was built at this site in 1882. Members of the congregation have included many pioneer area settlers and prominent leaders of Buda.