Eddy Methodist Church

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Eddy Methodist Church, out in McLennan County. Pull up a chair, because this congregation has been movin' and buildin' for a long time. Way back in 1868, a group of Methodists living in the region between Elm and Bullhide Creeks, right along the Bell and McLennan county line, put up a simple sanctuary.

Nothing fancy. Just a congregation with a purpose, planting their roots near a cedar log toll bridge. That was the beginning.

By 1873, the Rev. James Peeler, a circuit preacher out of the Waco district, was riding his rounds and serving what they called the Cedar Bridge Church congregation. You can picture it.

A preacher on the road, a little church waiting for him at the end of it. Now here's where things get interesting. The community, which went by the name Marvin when it was first settled around 1880, had its eye on the future.

And the future, in those days, came in the form of railroad tracks. The Missouri, Kansas, and Texas Railroad extended its line through the area in 1882, and the community moved itself toward those tracks. The place would come to be known as Eddy.

That same year, 1882, a building called Sage Chapel was picked up off the land of local rancher Charles Dunning and relocated to Eddy, where it served both the Methodist and Baptist congregations together. Shared walls, shared pews. The Eddy Methodists weren't done buildin', though.

In 1892 they raised a new church building right at this site. And then, in 1912, through the efforts of the Rev. S.B.

Knowles, they built the sanctuary that still stands today. And what a sanctuary it is. The Rev.

Knowles and his congregation didn't settle for plain. What they put up is a fine example of an Akron plan church, with elaborate German-made stained glass windows catching the light, a stamped metal ceiling overhead, and Prairie School style touches all through it. Overhanging eaves with brackets.

A hipped roof. A tower. The kind of building that makes you stop and look twice before you even walk in the door.

Decades passed. And in 1983, the Eddy Methodist Church and the Bruceville Methodist Church came together, merging to form the Bruceville-Eddy United Methodist Church. Two congregations, one future.

Then in 1993, when renovations were made to the sanctuary, the Bruceville Church Bell was placed in the belfry. Two churches, now truly joined, with one bell ringing for both. From a simple sanctuary near a cedar log toll bridge in 1868 to a bell in a belfry more than a century later.

That's not just a building. That's a community that kept buildin' no matter what.

What the marker says

In 1868 a congregation of Methodist living in the Bell and Mclennan county region between Elm and Bull hide Creeks erected a simple sanctary at the site of a nearby cedar log toll bridge. The Rev. James Peeler, a Waco district Methodist Circuit preacher, served the Cedar Bridge Church congregation in 1873. The community of Eddy, known as Marvin when first settled about 1880, moved toward the railroad tracks extended through this area by the Missouri, Kansas, and Texas Railroad in1882. That year a building known as Sage Chapel was relocated from local rancher Charles Dunning's Land to Eddy for use by the Methodist and Baptist Congregation. Eddy Mothodest erected a new church building at this site in 1892. This sancturary, built in 1912 through the efforts of the Rev. S.B. Knowles, is a good example of an Akron plan Church. It features elaborate German-,ade stained glass windows, a stamped metal ceiling, and Prairie School style infuences sch as overhanging eaves with brackets, a hipped roof,and tower. Bruceville and Eddy Methodist Churches merged to form the Bruceville-Eddy United Methodist Churchin 1983. Renovation of the sanctuary in 1993 included placement of the Bruceville Church Bell in the Belfry.