DUANE
Duane's take
Here's what the official marker has to say, and I'll tell it the way it deserves to be told. Back in 1856, somebody decided it was time to organize a Methodist church out in San Saba County. Now, I want you to sit with that for a second — this was 1856, and the area was, by the marker's own reckoning, so wild that when the congregation sent a missionary out to do the Lord's work, they didn't just send him with a Bible and a prayer.
They equipped that man. Fifty dollars for a revolver. A hundred and twenty-five dollars for a horse.
The church wrote those checks — or whatever passed for checks in 1856 — and sent their missionary out armed and mounted into the Texas frontier. That right there tells you everything you need to know about what kind of country this was. The gospel wasn't going to preach itself, and it sure wasn't going to walk.
So the congregation put their money where their faith was, and out he rode. The first frame church went up on this very site in 1882, which was itself no small thing. But the congregation wasn't finished.
Between 1914 and 1919, they built what's standing today, and here's where the story gets its lasting punch — they built it out of San Saba marble. Every wall, every column, the whole structure. And it is said to be the only all-marble Methodist church in the entire United States.
The only one. Started with a fifty-dollar revolver in wild country, and ended up with something that just might be one of a kind in the whole nation. That's San Saba County for you — it has a way of finishing what it starts.
What the marker says
Organized 1856 in area so wild that church gave missionary a $50 revolver, $125 horse. On this site, first frame church, 1882. Present building, 1914-1919. San Saba marble. Said to be only all-marble Methodist church in U.S.