May United Methodist Church

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the May United Methodist Church in Brown County. Now settle in, because this one's got roots that go deep, and a story that doesn't quit easy. It starts, like so many things out here on the Texas frontier, with a man on horseback.

Back in the 1860s, the Rev. Hugh M. Childress was the first to come riding through this region as a circuit preacher, and folks out here didn't have a church to their name.

They had their front rooms, their kitchen tables, whatever space they could clear. That's where worship happened. A preacher rides in, you open your door.

Simple as that. Then in 1882, the Rev. Peter Gravis came along and organized Mt.

Zion Methodist Church. That congregation would later merge with the one over at Byrds. And those two communities were just the beginning.

Bethel, Brooks, Clio, Gap Creek, Green's Chapel, Holder, Pleasant Valley, Rocky, Shrum, Verbena, Williams, Windham, Wolf Valley, and May itself. All of them eventually folded together into what became known as the May charge. Every summer, brush arbor revivals brought people out under the open sky.

The faith was alive and it was moving. By 1886, the May Methodist Church was formally organized. For a few years, members gathered for services in nearby Verbena, and that went on until 1890, when they started meeting in the newly constructed May schoolhouse.

Four years after that, they built their own one-room church. Their own. That little building held them through plenty.

Then in 1929 and 1930, they raised up a new brick building, fitted with memorial stained glass windows. Now that is a congregation making a statement. That brick building stood for seventy years.

Seventy years of Sundays, of Depression-era lean times, of droughts and floods, of wars, of every hard thing that life and weather and history could throw at Brown County. And then, in January of 2000, the building was destroyed by fire. After all that.

After everything. But here's what the marker wants you to know, and I think it's the whole point of the thing. The May United Methodist Church has served its members and the May community for more than one hundred years.

Depression, droughts, floods, wars, fire. Not one of those things finished it. The pioneer founders set something in motion out here that outlasted the circuit riders, outlasted the one-room church, outlasted the brick building with the stained glass.

Some things, it turns out, you just can't burn down.

What the marker says

Methodists in this area were initially served by circuit-riding preachers. First to come to the region in the 1860s was the Rev. Hugh M. Childress, and worship services were held in private homes. In 1882, the Rev. Peter Gravis organized Mt. Zion Methodist Church, which later merged with the congregation at Byrds. Both of these communities, along with Bethel, Brooks, Clio, Gap Creek, Green's Chapel, Holder, Pleasant Valley, Rocky, Shrum, Verbena, Williams, Windham and Wolf Valley became part of the May charge. Brush arbor revivals were held each summer. The May Methodist Church was formally organized in 1886. Members gathered for services in nearby Verbena until 1890, when they began meeting in the newly constructed May schoolhouse. Four years later, members built their own one-room church, which served until they constructed a new brick building with memorial stained glass windows in 1929-30. After 70 years of service, the church building was destroyed by fire in January 2000. Throughout its history, the May United Methodist Church has upheld the ideals and traditions of its pioneer founders. Despite the Depression, droughts, floods, wars and fire, the church has served its members and the May community for more than 100 years. (2001)