Driftwood Church

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Way out in Hays County, in a little place called Driftwood, the story of a church starts the way a lot of Texas stories start: with not much more than a preacher, some willing folks, and a schoolhouse. The Reaves School, one mile to the north, is where the early Methodist services were held.

The man doing the holding was the Reverend John Alexander Garison, born in 1849, who would live all the way to 1933. He wasn't just tending to Driftwood, mind you. He was riding circuit through other small Hays County communities too, the kind of ministry that asks a lot of a man and a horse.

But in 1884, something changed. A small frame sanctuary right here was completed, and the congregation moved in. Their own four walls.

Their own roof. That is no small thing when you have been meeting in a schoolhouse. Now, here is where the story takes a turn that nobody planned.

In 1911, the local Baptist church building was destroyed. And the Methodists, without a long deliberation as far as the marker tells us, shared this very structure with the Baptists. Two congregations, one modest frame church, and somehow it held.

Not just for a season either. Both congregations have continued holding services here, and together they provide a Union Sunday School. And if you want proof that a place can put down roots deeper than timber and nail, consider this: descendants of pioneer church members still worship at the Driftwood church.

The building outlasted the schoolhouse, outlasted the Baptist building, outlasted the reverend himself. Some things in Texas just keep going.

What the marker says

Early Methodist church services in Driftwood were held in the Reaves School (1 mi. N) by the Rev. John Alexander Garison (1849-1933), who served other small Hays County communities as well. The congregation began meeting here in 1884 after this small frame sanctuary was completed. When the local Baptist church building was destroyed in 1911 the Methodists shared this structure with the Baptists. Both congregations have continued to hold services here and provide a Union Sunday School. Descendants of pioneer church members still worship at the Driftwood church. (1983)