DUANE
Duane's take
Here's the story as the official marker tells it — my job is just to do it justice. Now, the First Methodist Church of Port Lavaca didn't just grow up alongside this corner of the Texas coast. It grew up *against* it — and friend, that is a meaningful distinction.
The Rev. Joseph P. Sneed of the Victoria circuit organized the congregation all the way back in 1841.
That's early. Texas had barely caught its breath as a republic. By 1844, the Lavaca congregation had joined the newly formed Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and you might think that kind of institutional footing would give a church some peace and stability.
You would be wrong. See, the Gulf Coast had opinions about that. Hurricanes plagued the area — the marker doesn't mince words there — plagued — and yet the congregation persevered.
That word, too, was chosen carefully. The 1862 building was destroyed in 1875. Gone.
So they built again, and the 1898 replacement rose up on this ground. Now here's the detail that'll stay with you. That 1898 building wasn't just a church — it became a keeper of something.
It harbored the bell of the ravaged Indianola Methodist Church. A congregation that survived took in the bell of one that didn't. Then the storm of 1945 took that building too.
Bell and all, lost. And still — still — the congregation persevered. A complex of facilities was completed in 1958, a new sanctuary added in 1975.
The First United Methodist Church of Port Lavaca, organized in 1841 by a circuit rider, continues a tradition of service to this community. Some things, it turns out, a storm just cannot finish.
What the marker says
The First Methodist Church of Port Lavaca was organized in 1841 by the Rev. Joseph P. Sneed of the Victoria circuit. By 1844 the Lavaca congregation had joined the newly formed Methodist Episcopal Church, South. Though hurricanes plagued the area, the congregation persevered. The 1862 building was destroyed in 1875; its 1898 replacement, which harbored the bell of the ravaged Indianola Methodist Church, was lost in the storm of 1945. A complex of facilities was completed in 1958, with a new sanctuary added in 1975. The First United Methodist Church of Port Lavaca continues a tradition of service to the community. (1998)