DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the First Methodist Church of Corpus Christi. Now settle in, because this story starts before there was even a church to speak of. It starts with a reverend, a gathering army, and a city that was just finding its feet on the Gulf Coast.
The year was 1846, and the Rev. John Haynie was conducting Methodist worship services in Corpus Christi right as federal troops were massing in the area — massing, as it turned out, in preparation for what would become the Mexican War. You picture that scene: soldiers everywhere, a city on edge, and one reverend holding services in the middle of it all.
But here's the thing about planting a church — doing the work and making it official are two very different matters. Seven years would pass before a Methodist church was formally established in Corpus Christi. Seven years.
That's a long time to be worshippin' on faith alone. It was 1853 when the Rev. Henderson S.
Lafferty finally directed the formation of this congregation, and when they built their first home, they built it to last. The material was shellcrete, and the location was the corner of Chaparral and Mann Streets. Now that building wasn't just the first structure this congregation put up — it was the first building constructed by any denomination in all of Corpus Christi.
The land itself came from Col. Henry L. Kinney, who the marker names plainly as the founder of Corpus Christi.
So right there, the roots of this church are tangled up with the very roots of the city. And from the beginning, those early facilities did far more than host Sunday services. They served as a community center.
A schoolhouse. And when yellow fever swept through Corpus Christi — in 1854, and again in 1867 — those walls became an emergency hospital. Let that land on you for a moment.
The congregation opened their doors during not one but two epidemics, turning their place of worship into a place of survival. That original block of buildings kept serving this community, one way or another, all the way until 1955, when new facilities were completed on Shoreline Drive. Over a century of use out of that first shellcrete corner on Chaparral and Mann.
The marker tells us the history of the First Methodist Church reflects the fellowship's steady growth, its active role in establishing several area congregations, a commitment to community development, and a dramatic influence on the quality of life in Corpus Christi. Dramatic influence. Those are the marker's own words — and after yellow fever and a Mexican War and a century of shellcrete holding everything together, I don't think anybody's going to argue with them.
What the marker says
The Rev. John Haynie conducted Methodist worship services at Corpus Christi in 1846 as federal troops gathered in preparation for what would become the Mexican war. It was not until 1853, however, that a Methodist church was established in the city. That year the Rev. Henderson S. Lafferty directed formation of this congregation. The church's earliest building, the first constructed by a denomination in Corpus Christi, was a shellcrete structure located at the corner of Chaparral and Mann Streets. Situated on land purchased from Col. Henry L. Kinney, the founder of Corpus Christi, the congregation's early facilities served as a community center and schoolhouse. They were also used as an emergency hospital during the city's yellow fever epidemics of 1854 and 1867. With the construction of additional buildings, the original block served until 1955, when new facilities were completed on Shoreline Drive. The history of the First Methodist Church reflects the fellowship's steady growth, its active role in the establishment of several area congregations, a commitment to the development of the community and a dramatic influence on the quality of life in Corpus Christi.