First Methodist Church of Farmersville

Duane's take

The official marker for the First Methodist Church of Farmersville tells it this way, and I'm gonna do my best to do it justice. Now, if you want to talk about a congregation that has seen some things, some genuinely hard, genuinely remarkable things, pull over and give this one a minute. It starts in 1856.

No grand sanctuary, no stained glass, no organ echoing off stone walls. Just the Rev. J.W.

Chalk, a local schoolhouse west of the pioneer town of Farmersville, and a handful of souls willing to sit still long enough to hear something worth hearing. That's where the Methodist classes began. Humble as a dirt road, and just as enduring.

Fourteen years passed. Then, in 1870, Farmersville's lone church structure, one building serving the whole town, hosted a community-wide all-night revival. All night.

Whatever happened in that room between sundown and sunup, it was enough to arouse many in attendance to join the Methodist congregation. That's the marker's word: aroused. Not nudged.

Not reminded. Aroused. Something was stirring.

By 1873, the congregation was holding arbor meetings on property near Brushy Creek owned by Sam R. and Mary Hamilton. Open-air gatherings, the sky for a ceiling, and they kept at it for fifteen years on that same ground. Fifteen years of meetings near that creek.

There's a patience in that worth noting. Then, in 1875, they built their first true church structure, right here at this location. One room.

Four walls and a roof and a congregation that had earned every nail in it. But one room only holds a story for so long. In 1902, that original building was razed and replaced with something altogether different: a grand ornate church building designed by a man named James Edward Flanders.

Now the marker calls it magnificent, and I'm inclined to believe it. Which makes what happened next all the harder to say. In 1924, that magnificent structure, the ornate one, the Flanders building, the one they'd been proud of for over twenty years, was destroyed by fire.

At great cost to the congregation. Four words that carry a weight no dollar figure could measure. At great cost to the congregation.

But here's the thing about this particular group of people: they didn't stop meeting. While the rebuilding was underway, they held services in the Cornes Theater. Borrowed space, folding chairs maybe, the smell of a stage instead of a sanctuary, and still they gathered.

By 1926, a new church structure was completed, this one in the Greek revival style. Two years after the fire. They didn't waste much time on grief.

And then came another kind of test; not fire this time, but war. During World War II, space in that church building was used for a community blood drive and as an air raid shelter. Think about that for a second.

The same walls that held Sunday sermons held people listening for sounds in the sky. The congregation was renamed the First United Methodist Church in 1968, and the work kept expanding, sponsoring youth programs in New Mexico, participating in missionary work in South America. From a schoolhouse west of a pioneer town in 1856 to South America.

That's not a short road. But then, this congregation never did seem to mind a long one.

What the marker says

This congregation traces its beginning to organized Methodist classes conducted in 1856 by the Rev. J.W. Chalk in a local schoolhouse west of the pioneer town of Farmersville. A community-wide all-night revival held in Farmersville's lone church structure in 1870 aroused many in attendance to join the Methodist congregation. Arbor meetings were held for 15 years on property near Brushy Creek owned by Sam R. and Mary Hamilton beginning in 1873. The congregation built its first church structure at this location in 1875. The one-room building was razed and replaced in 1902 with a grand ornate church building designed by James Edward Flanders. The magnificent structure was destroyed by fire at great cost to the congregation in 1924. Church services were held in the Cornes Theater before a new Greek revival style church structure was completed in 1926. The congregation has a history of service to the local community. Space in the church building was used for a community blood drive and as an air raid shelter during World War II. Renamed the First United Methodist Church in 1968, the congregation has sponsored youth programs in New Mexico and participated in missionary work in South America. (1992)