DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it — and I'll do my best to do it justice. Six people. That's all it took.
Six people sitting down together on September 23, 1882, to decide that Del Rio was going to have itself a Methodist Episcopal Church South. Six people — Randolph Pafford, J. Lyman Bailey, William M.
Bailey, Sarah Bailey, Rosalie Roberts, and William G. Hancock — and from that small circle, something that would outlast all of them many times over. Now in those earliest days, the congregation didn't have four walls to call its own.
They met in the homes of members, the way a lot of frontier faith communities got their start — just folks pulling chairs together and making do. But things began to take shape pretty quickly. Pafford, one of those original six, donated a town lot and five hundred dollars to the church in 1883.
That's not nothing. That's a man putting his money where his conviction was. A wood-frame structure went up not long after, on Cemetery Street — which folks today know as Pecan Street — sitting right on what was then the northern edge of town.
Growth was modest coming into the twentieth century, the way growth in a frontier town tends to be — steady, quiet, unspectacular. But in 1903 and 1904, the congregation built a stone chapel. Stone.
That's a congregation saying, we're not goin' anywhere. By 1917, the membership had climbed to slightly more than three hundred. And here's where the story gets a little bigger than just one church on one street.
The congregation opened their homes to soldier trainees at Camp Del Rio — later known as Camp Michie. That's the kind of thing that shapes a community and a congregation both. Continued growth made the existing space feel a little tight, and on May 31, 1931, the first service was held in a new, larger building.
Turns out that larger sanctuary was more than justified. Between the world wars, the congregation doubled — from those three hundred or so, all the way to over seven hundred members. Double.
In one stretch of time. Then came the 1960s, and the growth of the city, and the opening of Laughlin Air Force Base, and the membership climbed again — this time to more than nine hundred. A church that started with six people in somebody's living room was now touching nearly a thousand.
In 1968, the wider Methodist Church and the Evangelical United Brethren Church merged to become the United Methodist Church, and this congregation moved into that new chapter with them. And the work didn't stop at the city limits. The church reached out after numerous hurricanes, sent missions into Mexico and Liberia, and kept pouring into the local community through outreach programs right there at home.
Six people. September 23, 1882. And what they set in motion that day is still going.
What the marker says
Six individuals met on September 23, 1882 to create the Methodist Episcopal Church South, the forerunner of First United Methodist Church of Del Rio. These first congregants were Randolph Pafford,J. Lyman Bailey, William M. Bailey, Sarah Bailey, Rosalie Roberts and William G. Hancock. During the earliest days of the congregation’s existence, church meetings were held in the homes of members. Pafford donated a town lot and $500 to the church in 1883, and a wood-frame structure was soon erected on cemetery street (now Pecan street), on what was then the northern edge of town. Growth of the congregation was modest into the 20th century, and a stone chapel was constructed in 1903-1904. The congregation grew to slightly greater than three hundred members by 1917, as members opened their homes to soldier trainees at Camp del Rio, later known as Camp Michie. Continued growth of the congregation created the necessity for another, larger facility, and the first service in the new building was held on may 31, 1931. The larger sanctuary was well justified, as the congregation doubled in size to over seven hundred members between the world wars. The growth of the city and the opening of laughlin air force base facilitated the enlargement of the membership to more than nine hundred during the 1960s. In 1968, the Methodist Church and Evangelical United Brethren Church merged into the United Methodist Church. The church has promoted missions and charitable work after numerous hurricanes, as well as abroad in Mexico and Liberia, and also provides numerous outreach programs throughout the local community. (2008)