Frisco Methodist Church

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm gonna give it to you straight with a little room to breathe. Now, before Frisco was Frisco, before there was a railroad, before there was a town to speak of, there was a log home sitting out on the frontier. And in 1848, a handful of settlers gathered inside it.

William and Frances Rogers. Peter and Sarah Teel. Elizabeth Rogers.

And a Methodist circuit-riding minister by the name of Reverend Joab Biggs. A circuit rider, for those of you who've never heard the term, was the kind of preacher who didn't wait for his congregation to come to him. He came to them, riding from settlement to settlement, holding services wherever people could gather.

And on this particular occasion, they gathered in William Rogers' log home and organized what would become a congregation that's still standin' to this day. They called it Bethel Methodist Church. Small, rural, frontier folks holding onto their faith the best way they knew how.

Four years later, in 1852, they put up their first actual sanctuary on land donated by William Rogers, who apparently had a talent for being useful at the right moment. Time passed, as it tends to do out on the Texas frontier. By the early 1870s, the church had erected a school building.

And then, in 1882, they converted that same school building into a sanctuary. One building doing the work of two, in different seasons of life. There's something almost poetic about that, if you're inclined to notice it.

But here's where the story picks up a little color. In 1874, a man named Joseph Rogers (note: a different Rogers, the marker is careful about that) donated a piece of land where the church held camp meetings. Now, camp meetings in those days were no small thing.

They were part revival, part community gathering, part the only real social event some of these settlers saw all year. And these particular meetings grew. They kept growing.

They grew so large, in fact, that by 1888 somebody had to build a big shed just to hold everyone. When a tent revival outgrows itself and needs permanent shade, you know something is happening. Then came the railroad.

In 1902, the church packed up and moved to the new railroad town of Frisco. They erected a sanctuary in a downtown location. They changed their name to Frisco Methodist Church, because that is where they were and that is who they were becoming.

Thirteen years on, in 1915, a new brick sanctuary went up. Brick. That's a congregation putting down roots.

The name changed again in 1968. First United Methodist Church of Frisco. Reflecting something larger happening in the Methodist world.

And then, in 1982, after eighty years of serving Frisco from that downtown location, the congregation built a new sanctuary at this very site. Eighty years is a long time to be anywhere. Moving is not a small decision.

But a growing membership calls for growing room. From a log home on the frontier in 1848, through a series of sanctuaries and school buildings and camp meeting sheds, through two name changes and a railroad and a brick wall going up against the Texas sky, this congregation has kept right on going. That's not a short story.

That's the whole long one.

What the marker says

Area frontier settlers William and Frances Rogers, Peter and Sarah Teel, and Elizabeth Rogers, and the Rev. Joab Biggs, a Methodist circuit-riding minister, organized this congregation in William Rogers' log home in 1848. Known as Bethel Methodist Church, the small rural congregation erected its first sanctuary in 1852 on land donated by William Rogers. A school building erected by the church in the early 1870s was converted for use as a sanctuary in 1882. In 1874 Joseph Rogers donated land on which the church held camp meetings that became such large events that a large shed was built at the site in 1888. In 1902 the church moved here to the new railroad town of Frisco, erected a sanctuary at a downtown location, and changed its name to Frisco Methodist Church. A new brick sanctuary was completed in 1915. The congregation changed its name to First United Methodist Church of Frisco in 1968. In 1982, after 80 years of serving Frisco from its downtown facilities, the congregation erected a new sanctuary at this site to serve its growing membership. Over the years the congregation has expanded its education programs. The church continues to serve the area with various group activities and outreach programs. (1994)