Center Point United Methodist Church

Duane's take

Here's the story as the marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Way out in Kerr County, before there was even a town called Center Point to hang your hat on, a woman named Henrietta Rees came west from Tennessee. The year was 1852.

She brought her children with her, and she brought something else too. A determination that this place was going to have faith planted in it, one way or another. It didn't take long before she arranged for Methodist circuit riders to make their way out to this area.

That right there is the kind of grit that builds a community from nothing. Now, the years turned, and by 1872 the congregation was ready for something more permanent. One acre of land was bought from W.

G. Cocke, a man known around these parts as Gabe, and his wife Vanilla. That's the name on the deed.

Vanilla Cocke. You can't make that up, and I wouldn't dare try. Then around 1876, the Reverend W.

E. Pafford and a man named Turley Cocke set about building a proper church house on this ground. Progress was being made.

But here's where the land itself seemed to have other ideas. When this congregation purchased a new site in 1883 from James Sellers and got to work on a building, a storm came through and destroyed the first structure while it was still under construction. Now, most folks might read that as a sign to look elsewhere.

Not these people. They built again. That second attempt didn't hold either, and so the congregation came back a third time.

Patient, stubborn, faithful, call it what you will. The third structure, the one that finally stood, was completed in 1911 by the men of the congregation themselves. Henrietta Rees showed up in 1852 with her children and a vision, and roughly sixty years of circuit riders and storms and setbacks later, that vision was standing in wood and stone.

Some stories take a while to finish. This one earned every single year.

What the marker says

In 1852, before there was a town here, Mrs. Henrietta Rees and her children came from Tennessee. Soon, she arranged for Methodist circuit riders to come to this area. One acre was bought for a church in 1872 from W. G. ("Gabe") Cocke and his wife Vanilla. About 1876 the Rev. W. E. Pafford and Turley Cocke built a church house. This site was purchased in 1883 from James Sellers. After a storm destroyed the first building under construction, a second was erected. This third structure was completed in 1911 by the men of the congregation. (1979)