DUANE
Get the App
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about McLean Methodist Church in Gray County. Now settle in, because this one goes back a long way. We're talking about a congregation that got itself organized in the early nineteen hundreds, and the marker reckons it is thought to be the oldest denominational church in Gray County.
That's a title worth holding onto. The Rev. G.
R. Fort stepped up as the first pastor, and in those early days, the Methodists of McLean didn't have a fancy building to gather in. They met in a one-room schoolhouse.
Picture that, neighbors packed into a little schoolhouse, singing hymns, hearing the Word, making a community out of open prairie. They made do, the way folks out here always have. Then in nineteen oh four, they built their first sanctuary right on this very site.
Same ground you're passing by right now. Inside that congregation, groups like the Ladies Home Missionary Society took up the work of serving and leading the community, and they didn't do it quietly. They were active.
They showed up. And here's the part that really lands, descendants of some of those original members still worship here. The faces have changed, the years have piled up, but the roots held.
This marker was placed during the Texas Sesquicentennial, marking eighteen thirty-six to nineteen eighty-six, one hundred and fifty years of Texas, and this church was already a pillar of Gray County long before anyone thought to put up a sign about it.
What the marker says
This congregation, organized in the early 1900s, is thought to be the oldest denominational church in Gray County. The Rev. G. R. Fort served as first pastor. Methodists in McLean met in a one-room schoolhouse until their first sanctuary was constructed at this site in 1904. Groups within the congregation, including Ladies Home Missionary Society, have provided active service and leadership to the community. Descendants of some of the original members still worship here. Texas Sesquicentennial 1836 - 1986