First United Methodist Church of Lovelady

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. The year was 1872, and Lovelady, Texas, was just drawing its first breath as a town. Right there at the very beginning, before the paint was dry on anything, a church was taking shape alongside it.

Not in a building yet, mind you. It started smaller than that. A woman named Mrs.

J.R.B. Barbee gathered folks together for Sunday School, and from that seed, something lasting began to grow. The Rev.

William Bonner, a circuit rider, came through and chartered the congregation, with The Rev. J.C. Woolam lending his assistance.

Circuit riders covered hard country on horseback, carrying the church with them wherever they went, and Bonner brought it here to Lovelady in the same year the town itself was organized. That's not a coincidence the marker lets you overlook. The church and the town, born together.

Now, the congregation needed somewhere to worship, and for many years they held services in a Presbyterian sanctuary right on this very site. That building had gone up in 1872. The Methodists eventually acquired it in 1892, making it officially their own.

Then in 1910, a new facility was built here, a proper home for a congregation that had been part of this community from the very first day. Since those earliest days, the marker says, the First United Methodist Church of Lovelady has been a leader in the area's development. Started by a Sunday School, chartered by a circuit rider, meeting in a borrowed sanctuary, and still standing.

Some things in Texas take root before the town even knows it needs them.

What the marker says

This church was organized in 1872, the year Lovelady was founded. It grew from a Sunday School started by Mrs. J.R.B. Barbee and was chartered by The Rev. William Bonner, a circuit rider, with the assistance of The Rev. J.C. Woolam. For many years services were conducted in the 1872 Presbyterian sanctuary at this site, which the Methodists acquired in 1892. A new facility was built here in 1910. Since the earliest days of the town, the First United Methodist Church of Lovelady has been a leader in the area's development.