First Methodist Church

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the First Methodist Church in Washington County. Now settle in, because this one goes back a good long ways. We're talkin' about Brenham's very first church, established the same year the town itself was founded, 1844.

Think about that. The town wasn't even broken in yet, and folks were already building something meant to last. That's a certain kind of ambition right there.

An early member by the name of R. B. Wells apparently couldn't stop at just attending services.

By 1846, he was writing and publishing the Christian Advocate, the church magazine of Texas Methodists, right there in Brenham. The man brought the word to the page. Now, churches have a way of either fading out or growing into something bigger than their founders imagined.

This one grew. By 1868, the Texas Methodist Conference itself came to meet there. That is not a small thing.

When the whole conference picks your house, you have arrived. The congregation honored one of their own by building Giddings Memorial Church in 1879, named for J. D.

Giddings, described as an early settler who organized the church. You build a building with a man's name on it, that's how a community says thank you across time. Then there's a second thread to this story.

Back in 1872, a German Methodist group started up as New Mission Field, eventually becoming Fourth Street Methodist Church. That group, quiet and determined, established Blinn College in 1883. Two different congregations, two different histories, one running back to the town's founding and one born out of a mission field, and in 1939, they merged.

Became one. All those separate years, separate names, separate ambitions, folded into a single church. Brenham started with one congregation in 1844, and nearly a century later, it found a way to bring more of its people together under the same roof.

That's not a bad run for the first church in town.

What the marker says

Brenham's first church; was established year Brenham founded, 1844. Early member R. B. Wells wrote and published "Christian Advocate", church magazine of Texas Methodists here in 1846. By 1868 church had reached such stature that the Texas Methodist Conference met here. Group built Giddings Memorial Church in 1879 to honor J. D. Giddings, early settler who organized church. In 1939 merged with Fourth Street Methodist Church, German Methodist group which began in 1872 as New Mission Field. German group established Blinn College in 1883.