Chinn's Chapel Methodist Church

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker at Chinn's Chapel has to say, and friend, this one's worth the stop. Out here in Denton County, there's a congregation with roots that go all the way back to 1846, before Texas had been a state for even a full year. Pioneer settlers of the Peters Colony came together and organized a nondenominational congregation, no single denomination claiming it, just people gathering in faith.

They invited itinerant preachers (the kind who rode circuits across the frontier) to hold services in a log church and school building sitting about a quarter mile northwest of where the marker stands today. Now, that log chapel had a home because two people made sure it did. Mary Stowe Chinn and Elisha Chinn, immigrants from North Carolina, donated ten acres of land called Antioch for church and cemetery purposes.

Mary Stowe Chinn was born in 1808 and Elisha in 1802, and they gave something to this community that outlasted them both by a considerable stretch. For a generation, that congregation held on; nondenominational, frontier-tough, itinerant-preacher-fed. Then in 1872, things got official.

The church was admitted to the North Texas Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, taking the name Chinn's Chapel Methodist Church. That same year, Sunday School classes began. Five years later, in 1877, the church purchased four acres right here, and the reason matters.

This spot had freshwater springs. It had been a place for early camp meetings. The congregation erected a sanctuary and built a tabernacle for summer revivals.

You can almost hear it, can't you: hymns drifting out across a Denton County evening, the tabernacle lit up, summer air thick and warm. And this place wasn't just a church. From 1884 to 1921, the property included a combination Woodmen of the World Lodge Hall and public school.

Chinn's Chapel was the main gathering place for the whole area; worship, school, fraternal lodge, revival, community. All of it, right here. Then came the hard years.

Membership declined sharply after World War II. A lot of small country churches didn't survive that tide. But Chinn's Chapel endured.

Through denominational merger, it became Chinn's Chapel United Methodist Church in 1968. The name changed; the ground stayed the same. In the late 1980s, local people started working to bring the institution back to life.

An active membership was reestablished. And in 1996, the building was renovated. From a log chapel on donated land in 1846, through frontier revivals and freshwater springs and a century and a half of Texas history, Chinn's Chapel is still standing.

Some things, it turns out, you just can't outlast.

What the marker says

This church began as a nondenominational congregation organized by pioneer settlers of the Peters Colony in 1846. Itinerant preachers were invited to hold services in a log church/school building located about one quarter mile northwest of here. The log chapel was on 10 acres called Antioch donated by North Carolina immigrants Mary Stowe Chinn (1808-1871) and Elisha Chinn (1802-1876) for church and cemetery purposes. The church was admitted to the North Texas Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, in 1872, as Chinn's Chapel Methodist Church. Sunday School classes began that year. In 1877 the church purchased 4 acres here at the site of freshwater springs and early camp meetings. A sanctuary was erected and a tabernacle built for summer revivals. The property also included a combination Woodmen of the World Lodge Hall/public school from 1884 to 1921. Chinn's Chapel served as the main gathering place for the area. Though membership declined sharply after World War II, the church endured. Through denominational merger it became Chinn's Chapel United Methodist Church in 1968. Local efforts to revive the institution began in the late 1980s, and an active membership was reestablished. The building was renovated in 1996. (1996)