DUANE
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Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm takin' it from there. Now, Jermyn, Texas, is the kind of place where things start small and mean everything. And on November 24, 1909, something started about as small as it gets.
The Reverend L. D. Shawver gathered folks together and organized a Methodist church, right there in the first house ever built in Jermyn.
Not a proper church building, not a rented hall. The home of Mr. and Mrs. W.
T. Jones. That was the room where it happened.
The trustees named that day were J. D. Gillespie, H.
T. Jinks, and W. T.
Jones himself, the very man whose house they were standing in. Three names, one beginning. Now, a congregation without a building is a congregation with something to prove, and prove it they did.
By 1910, this church, the first in the area, had been built on its permanent site at 1st Avenue and Wise Street, right where it stands to this day. From a living room to a cornerstone in less than a year. The Reverend Shawver organized it, the Jones family opened their door, and Jermyn got its first church.
Some stories don't need embellishing. That one does the work all on its own.
What the marker says
Organized November 24, 1909, by the Rev. L. D. Shawver, pastor, in first house built in Jermyn - home of Mr. and Mrs. W. T. Jones. The original trustees were J. D. Gillespie, H. T. Jinks, and W. T. Jones. This church (first in area) was built 1910 on present site, 1st Avenue and Wise Street. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark, 1968.