Falvey Memorial United Methodist Church

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Falvey Memorial United Methodist Church in Cherokee County. Now settle in, because this story starts with a deal, the kind only a Texas veteran would have the nerve to offer. Sometime in the late 1860s or early 1870s, a man named James H.

Bowman, who had served in the Army of the Republic of Texas, walked up to the Reverend W. D. Lewis, Senior, over in the community of Barsola, and laid out a proposition.

One hundred acres of land. Just sitting there, waiting. The condition: Reverend Lewis had to pick up and move to the Mt.

Hope community, and once he got there, he had to build a Methodist church. Now, a man of the cloth weighing a hundred acres against a little relocation, that is not a hard sermon to write. The Reverend accepted.

And by 1875, the Mt. Hope Methodist Episcopal Church, South, was organized and standing. That is how you plant a congregation in East Texas.

You make it worth somebody's while to show up. Then came the railroad. In 1885, the Kansas and Gulf Short Line Railroad was built through the area, just to the south of Mt.

Hope, and a whole new community rose up alongside it. They called it Wells, named for Major E. H.

Wells, a railroad engineer. That same year, a man named Dr. J.

C. Falvey and his wife Matilda settled in Wells. They found their way to the Mt.

Hope Methodist congregation, which itself relocated down to Wells in 1888, following its people the way a good church tends to do. The congregation built a new church, put up a parsonage right behind it, and became what the marker calls a focal point for area Methodist pioneers. That is a fine thing to be called.

The congregation prospered through the rest of the nineteenth century and well into the twentieth. Then, between 1948 and 1950, something quietly remarkable happened. A new church building went up on this very site, built by the son of Dr.

J. C. and Mrs. Matilda Falvey, in honor of his parents.

The Falvey Memorial Methodist Church was dedicated in 1951. From a hundred-acre bargain struck in the years just after the Republic, to a son raising walls in his parents' memory, to Easter sunrise services at the Mt. Hope Cemetery tabernacle and Bible reading marathons still going strong today, Falvey Memorial United Methodist Church has carried the traditions of its founders the whole long way.

Some deals, it turns out, pay interest for generations.

What the marker says

In the late 1860s or early 1870s, Republic of Texas Army veteran James H. Bowman offered one hundred acres of land to the Rev. W. D. Lewis, Sr., of nearby Barsola, on the condition that he move to the Mt. Hope community for the purpose of establishing a Methodist church. The Rev. Mr. Lewis accepted the offer, and the Mt. Hope Methodist Episcopal Church, South, was organized by 1875. The Wells community was established in 1885 as the Kansas and Gulf Short Line Railroad was built through the area to the south of Mt. Hope. It was named for Major. E. H. Wells, a railroad engineer. Dr. J. C. Falvey and his wife, Matilda Falvey, settled in Wells that year. They joined the Mt. Hope Methodist congregation after it relocated to Wells in 1888. The congregation soon built a parsonage behind the new church. The church was a focal point for area Methodist pioneers. This congregation prospered for the remainder of the 19th century and well into the 20th. From 1948 to 1950 a new church building was constructed on this site in honor of Dr. J. C. and Mrs. Matilda Falvey by their son. The Falvey Memorial Methodist Church was dedicated in 1951. Active in the Mt. Hope and Wells communities from its earliest days, Falvey Memorial United Methodist Church continues to serve the area with programs of worship and service. These include ecumenical gatherings, such as a Bible reading marathon and Easter sunrise services at Mt. Hope Cemetery tabernacle, as well as community outreach. Falvey Memorial United Methodist Church continues in the traditions of its founders. (2000)