First Methodist Church of Silverton

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and here's how Duane tells it back to you. Way out in Briscoe County, in the little town of Silverton, a congregation got its start in 1891, and the story of how it grew is about as honest a picture of frontier Texas faith as you're going to find. It didn't begin with stained glass or a choir loft.

It began as a Sunday school. Just folks gathering, learning, holding on to something. The First Methodist Church of Silverton came up from that, and it grew right alongside the community itself.

Now that is the kind of detail worth sittin with for a minute. The town grew, the church grew. Neither one left the other behind.

The first pastor was the Reverend W.B. Ford, and brother, this man was not preaching to one flock. He conducted services in Silverton once a month, because he was also serving other communities in the area.

One man, spread across the land, showing up when he could. And when he did show up, where did that congregation meet? Well, wherever there was room.

A grocery store. A one-room schoolhouse. The courthouse.

You use what you have, and what they had was determination. That first sanctuary, a real dedicated place of worship, wasn't completed until 1902. Eleven years of grocery stores and courthouses before they had a building they could call their own.

Then 1929 came, and the congregation replaced that sanctuary. But here's the part worth noting: they didn't just tear the old one down and forget it. Some of the materials from the original building went right into the new one.

A little of the old holding up the new. And the additions kept coming after that, made to house a congregation that just kept on growin. From a Sunday school in 1891, to a grocery store, to a courthouse, to a sanctuary, to a bigger one, to something bigger still.

Silverton's First Methodist Church didn't just survive the frontier. It built on it.

What the marker says

Organized as a Sunday school in 1891, the First Methodist Church of Silverton has grown along with the community. The first pastor was the Rev. W.B. Ford, who conducted services here once a month while also serving other communities in the area. Early worship services were held in a grocery store, a one-room schoolhouse, and the courthouse until the first sanctuary was completed in 1902. The sancutuary was replaced in 1929 using some materials from the original building. Additions later were made to house the growing congregation. (1991)