First Methodist Church of Hutchins

Duane's take

The official marker tells this one, and I'm just the voice carryin' it down the road. The town of Hutchins came into being in 1872, when the Houston and Texas Central Railroad was completed through that stretch of Dallas County. Towns had a way of sprouting up right where the iron rails stopped rolling, and Hutchins was one of them.

Fifteen years on, in December of 1887, a man named Reverend John M. Davis gathered eight charter members together and founded what would become the First Methodist Church of Hutchins. Eight people.

That's it. Enough to fill a good-sized dinner table, and not much more. They didn't have a sanctuary, didn't have a steeple; they met in a farmhouse owned by a man named R.

A. Simpson. You work with what you've got.

For a stretch, they even shared facilities with the Christian Church of Hutchins, two congregations making room for each other under the same roof. There's something quietly dignified about that. Then in 1891, the Methodists got their own footing: a proper church building, raised up on Main Street, on land given by a man named A.

S. Clark. Given.

That word matters. Six years later, in 1897, a new building went up on Palestine Street, and it must have felt like they'd really arrived. But 1916 had other plans.

Fire destroyed that building and a parsonage both; gone. Now, a lesser congregation might've taken that as a sign. These folks took it as a project.

By 1917, they had rebuilt. The church that started with eight people in a farmhouse has served the community of Hutchins for more than a hundred years. Some things, once started, just refuse to stop.

What the marker says

The town of Hutchins was formed in 1872 with the completion of the Houston & Texas Central Railroad. The Rev. John M. Davis and 8 charter members founded this church in December 1887. They met in a farmhouse owned by R. A. Simpson, and later shared facilities with the Christian Church of Hutchins. In 1891, a Methodist church was built on Main Street on land given by A. S. Clark. A new building was erected on Palestine Street in 1897. Fire destroyed that building and a parsonage in 1916, but they were rebuilt in 1917. The church has served the community for more than 100 years.