DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it — and it's quite a story for one church in one Texas town. The First Methodist Church of Texas City, Galveston County, and I'll let the marker do the talking. It didn't start with steeples or stained glass.
Back in 1894, a small group of newly arrived families to Texas City started getting together for informal Methodist meetings. Nothing fancy. Just folks finding each other in a new place, the way people do.
But that little gathering had roots, and roots have a way of reaching. By 1896, the congregation had grown enough to become Texas City's first formally organized church — not just the first Methodist church, mind you, but the first formally organized church in the whole town. And with that, they brought in their first paid pastor: the Reverend E.
L. Ashmore, a member of the Gulf Mission Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, North. Now, here's where the story takes a turn that nobody in that little congregation could have planned for.
The 1900 storm. Much of Texas City was destroyed. And that congregation — having survived something that leveled their town — found themselves compelled to seek a secure location.
By late 1900, they had built their first proper sanctuary, at the corner of 3rd Avenue North and 3rd Street. You'd think that would be enough hardship for one church. But in 1907, a split came.
The older northern faction and a newer southern faction couldn't find common ground, and out of that division was born a separate congregation — the Central Methodist Episcopal Church, South. Two churches now, where there had been one. Central Methodist initially struggled.
That's what the marker says, and it's worth sitting with — a congregation starting from scratch, from a split, finding its footing. But they built their own sanctuary around 1913, at the corner of 4th Street and 6th Avenue North. And here's the wry little turn history handed them: that congregation eventually grew larger than the parent church it had broken away from.
Both of them made it to 1938. That's when the two congregations joined — and notice the timing, because the marker makes a point of it — they came back together before the denominational reunion happened at the national level. Texas City didn't wait on anybody.
Then in 1940, under the pastorate of the Reverend F. Clyde Woodward, the newly united First Methodist Church built a new sanctuary at 5th Avenue North and 4th Street. And the story closes — or at least the marker closes it — in 1968, when the church was renamed the First United Methodist Church.
From informal meetings in 1894, through a storm that leveled a city, through a split and a reunion, to a name that stuck — that's a long road for one congregation in one Texas town. And every mile of it is still standing on the marker.
What the marker says
This church began with informal Methodist meetings attended by a small group of newly arrived families to Texas City in 1894. The congregation grew and became Texas City's first formally organized church in 1896. The Rev. E. L. Ashmore, a member of the Gulf Mission Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church (North) served as the congregation's first paid pastor. Compelled to seek a secure location after much of Texas City was destroyed in the 1900 storm, the congregation built its first sanctuary at the corner of 3rd Ave. N and 3rd Street by late 1900. A split between the older "northern" and newer "southern" factions of the church led to the formation of the separate Central Methodist Episcopal Church, South, in 1907. Although Central Methodist Church initially struggled, their sanctuary, built at the corner of 4th Street and 6th Ave. N about 1913, eventually housed a congregation larger than that of its parent church. The two congregations joined in 1938, before the denominational reunion, to form the First Methodist Church. In 1940, during the pastorate of the Rev. F. Clyde Woodward, the congregation built a new sanctuary at 5th ave. N and 4th Street. The church was renamed the First United Methodist Church in 1968.