DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. This is the story of the First United Methodist Church of DeKalb, up in Bowie County, and friend, it starts a long way back — and a long way from any church building you'd recognize. We're talkin' 1815.
The Rev. William Stevenson was ridin' circuit through northeast Texas, preachin' the Word on both sides of the Red River. Now here's the wrinkle — Protestant services were flat-out illegal on the Texas side.
That was Spanish territory, and Spain had rules. Stevenson preached anyway. You've got to admire a man who looks at a law like that and keeps right on ridin'.
Methodist societies started springin' up in the area through the 1820s and 1830s, quiet and persistent as creek water finding its level. Then in 1836 — just five years after the town of DeKalb was founded — Dr. J.
W. P. McKenzie came in and started a Methodist mission right there in DeKalb.
Worth noting: this whole area was considered part of Miller County, Arkansas at the time. Texas was still sorting itself out. The following year, 1837, a man named the Rev.
John B. Denton served that little church. Now, I'll let the marker carry this one, because it deserves to land with some weight.
The Rev. Denton was later killed — killed — in the Village Creek Indian Battle, over in what is now Tarrant County. And the city and county of Denton were named for him.
A preacher who rode into this raw country, served a frontier congregation, and left his name on the map the hard way. The Methodists' first church building was a log structure — doubled as a schoolhouse, the way things had to work out on the frontier — and it stood in the southeast corner of Old DeKalb Cemetery. Simple.
Sturdy. Doing double duty. Then came the railroad.
The Texas and Pacific Railroad arrived, and the way it always did, it reshuffled things. The church moved to a new building at Fulton and Church Street in 1882. That building, it turns out, wasn't just for Methodists — the Presbyterian and Christian churches shared the facility too.
A Sunday School program got started in 1883. And the congregation kept growin', kept movin' with the times. In 1913, the church moved to its present location, and has occupied three separate buildings on that same ground.
Three. Which tells you something about a congregation that doesn't quit. Over the years, three other Methodist fellowships — Austin Chapel, Oak Grove, and Springhill — merged in and became part of the family.
From a circuit rider breakin' the law on the banks of the Red River in 1815 to a living congregation that absorbed three more communities into itself — that, right there, is a church that outlasted everything the frontier could throw at it.
What the marker says
The Rev. William Stevenson led the pioneering efforts of Methodist circuit riders in northeast Texas in 1815. He preached on both sides of the Red River, although Protestant services were then illegal in the Spanish territory of Texas. Methodist "societies" began to spring up in this area in the 1820s and 1830s. Dr. J. W. P. McKenzie started a Methodist mission in DeKalb in 1836, just five years after the town was founded. This area was then considered part of Miller County, Arkansas. The Rev. John B. Denton, who served the church in 1837, was later killed in the Village Creek Indian Battle in Tarrant County. The city and county of Denton were named for him. The Methodists' first church building was a log structure which also served as a schoolhouse. It stood in the southeast corner of Old DeKalb Cemetery. After the arrival of the Texas & Pacific Railroad, the church moved to a new building at Fulton and Church St. in 1882. The Presbyterian and Christian churches also shared that facility. A Sunday School program was begun in 1883. The church moved to its present location in 1913 and has occupied three buildings here. Three Methodist congregations, Austin Chapel, Oak Grove, and Springhill, have merged with the fellowship. (1985)