First United Methodist Church of Hewitt

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm passing it along to you straight. Now, before Hewitt Methodist Church ever existed, the Methodist faithful in this part of McLennan County had a home. It was called Stanford Chapel, organized about 1875, sitting eight miles west of what would become Hewitt.

That little chapel was the heartbeat of Methodist life out there, and it kept that beat for a good long while. But communities have a way of pulling together, and sometime before 1895, the Baptists and the Methodists in Hewitt itself decided they had enough in common to form a union Sunday school right there in town. Two congregations, one schoolroom, one shared sense of purpose.

Then came the year 1900, and things got official. The Northwest Texas Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church assigned a man named the Reverend Stephen W. Turner to the newly formed Hewitt circuit, and that same year, the Hewitt Methodist Church was organized.

A new congregation, a new circuit, a new chapter. Now here is where it gets a little bittersweet. Stanford Chapel, that original gathering place out west of town, disbanded in 1912.

Some of its members made their way into the Hewitt Methodist Church, carrying with them the memory and the roots of that older fellowship. But Stanford Chapel wasn't entirely gone. Not yet.

In 1922, the Stanford Chapel tabernacle, the very building where those early settlers had worshiped, was moved to Hewitt, and for several years it served as the site of summer revivals. A piece of the old world set down in the new one. The congregation kept growing, kept gathering, and in 1953, Hewitt Methodist Church became a full station.

And then the year 2000 rolled around, the same year the marker was placed, and the congregation celebrated its centennial. A hundred years on, and among the members sitting in those pews were descendants of the very founding families who had started the whole thing. Some stories come full circle so quietly you almost miss it.

That one didn't.

What the marker says

Methodist settlers in this area worshiped at Stanford Chapel, organized about 1875 eight miles west of Hewitt. Hewitt Baptists and Methodists formed a union Sunday school in town sometime before 1895. The Northwest Texas Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church assigned the Rev. Stephen W. Turner to the newly formed Hewitt circuit in 1900 and the Hewitt Methodist Church was organized that year. Stanford Chapel disbanded in 1912; some of its members joined Hewitt Methodist Church. The Stanford Chapel tabernacle was moved to Hewitt in 1922 and used for summer revivals for several years. The Hewitt Methodist Church became a full station in 1953. Celebrating its centennial in the year 2000, the congregation counts among its members descendants of its founding families. (2000)