First United Methodist Church of Kingsville

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. March 4, 1904. No building, no pews, no roof overhead.

Just thirty-one people and a pastor named Reverend C. S. Mills, who had come up from Corpus Christi, gathered under the shade of mesquite trees in a brand-new town called Kingsville.

That was the first Methodist worship service this place had ever seen. Now, mesquite trees aren't exactly known for their grandeur. Scraggly, thorny things.

But sometimes the setting doesn't need to be grand. Sometimes thirty-one folks and a preacher under the Texas sky is exactly enough. After that first service, the congregation kept on.

They made do, meeting in local businesses, borrowing space from the Presbyterian Church, doing what people of faith do when they don't yet have walls to call their own. They kept at it for years, until 1908, when they finally erected a church building of their own. The first service in that building was held in January of 1909.

That was just the beginning of the buildin'. A new church building went up right next door in 1926. Then a new sanctuary was completed in 1951, and that sanctuary is still standing today, still in use, still the current home of the congregation.

More than a century of missionary work and community service, growing right along with the area around it. All of it traceable back to a spring morning in 1904, thirty-one souls, and the shade of a few mesquite trees.

What the marker says

FIRST UNITED METHODIST CHURCH OF KINGSVILLE The first Methodist worship service in Kingsville was on March 4, 1904. The Reverend C. S. Mills, a pastor from Corpus Christi, conducted the service with thirty-one attendants sitting under mesquite trees. Services continued in local businesses and the Presbyterian Church until 1908 when a church building was erected for the congregation. The first service was held there in January of 1909. A new church building was erected next door in 1926. A new sanctuary was completed in 1951 and is the current sanctuary. The congregation’s history of missionary work and community service has contributed to the growth and success of the area. (2014)