First United Methodist Church of Gladewater

Duane's take

The way the official marker tells it, here's how the First United Methodist Church of Gladewater came to be. Now, Gladewater didn't come roaring out of nowhere. It developed as a railroad town in the 1870s, and for a good long while it just grew slowly, steadily, the way a patient man tends a garden.

No great fanfare. Just a town doing its quiet work. Then came 1922.

Twelve adults and two children, led by the Reverend H.T. Perritte of Longview, gathered together in the home of Mr. and Mrs. J.A.

Godfrey. Not a grand hall, not a courthouse. Somebody's home.

And in that home, they organized a congregation of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. Fourteen souls in somebody's living room, deciding that something worth building ought to be built. They didn't wait around.

They put up a simple one-room sanctuary. One room. You can almost picture it, can't you.

Just enough walls to keep the wind out and the Spirit in. For a while, things stayed modest. But then the 1930s arrived, and with them, an oil boom.

A local oil boom that brought more residents flooding into Gladewater, and suddenly that little one-room church and the town around it were growing in ways those fourteen people in the Godfrey home might not have fully reckoned with. Since those boom days, the congregation has kept building, not just in bricks and mortar, but in purpose. Members formed women's and men's groups to support the church and its many services and programs.

Fourteen people in a borrowed living room. That's where it started. The railroad built the town, the oil boom shook it awake, and fourteen folks who just wanted a place to worship, well, they built something that's still standing.

What the marker says

Developed as a railroad town in the 1870s, Gladewater grew slowly but steadily in the first decades of its existence. In 1922, twelve adults and two children led by the Rev. H.T. Perritte of Longview met in Mr. and Mrs. J.A. Godfrey's home to organize a congregation of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. They soon built a simple one-room sanctuary. The church and the town experienced dramatic growth beginning in the 1930s, when a local oil boom brought more residents. Since that time, members have formed women's and men's groups to support the church and its many services and programs. (2005)