DUANE
The story
In the spring of 1849, the Rev. Falacius Reynolds and nine charter members met in the cabin of E. W. and Nancy Rogers in the new settlement of Waxahachie and established a Methodist society.
The congregation erected its first house of worship in 1852. A new building, built in 1856, was shared with local Cumberland Presbyterian and Baptist congregations. In 1866 the Central Texas Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, was organized at the Waxahachie church.
A third building, erected in 1893, was lost to a fire in 1904 and was replaced in 1905. The congregation struggled through the Depression era to flourish in the 1940s and 1950s. A fifth church complex was erected in 1950.
Church members remain active in community service. (1999)