DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Mobeetie United Methodist Church, out in Wheeler County. Now, before there was a church, there was barely even a town. Mobeetie grew up out of a buffalo hunters camp — established in 1874 — and Fort Elliott, which opened just a year later in 1875.
That's the kind of rough-edged beginning that doesn't exactly promise a Methodist congregation down the road. But give it time. By 1881, Methodists Peter Gravis and J.T.
Hosmer were preachin' in that town. And the word took hold. Because by 1884, Mobeetie had itself a mission Methodist congregation.
A community of faith, takin' root in hard soil. Then came 1898. A tornado — and not the polite kind — tore through and destroyed the sanctuary.
And not just the sanctuary. Most of the other buildings in town went with it. You want to talk about a test of a congregation's resolve, there it is.
But they stayed. And in 1905, the community came together and erected a shared Union Church building. Eventually, the Methodist congregation bought it and made it their own.
Now here's where the whole town picks up and moves. In the late 1920s, Mobeetie shifted itself closer to the railroad — as towns were known to do when a rail line came callin'. And the congregation went right along with it.
In 1930, church members built a basement in New Mobeetie and moved their worship services there. A basement. Not glamorous.
But it was theirs, and they gathered in it. Then in 1947, they built the present sanctuary. After a tornado, a relocation, a basement chapter, and more years than most institutions survive — they built something meant to last.
And it has. The Mobeetie United Methodist Church continues to serve as an area spiritual center. From a buffalo camp to Fort Elliott to a tornado-leveled town to a railroad town to a sanctuary still standing — that's not just a church.
That's a story that keeps goin'.
What the marker says
Mobeetie developed from a buffalo hunters camp established in 1874 and Fort Elliott, which opened in 1875. Methodists Peter Gravis and J.T. Hosmer preached in the town in 1881, and by 1884, Mobeetie had a mission Methodist congregation. An 1898 tornado destroyed the sanctuary and most other buildings in town. In 1905, the community erected a shared Union Church building later bought by the Methodist congregation. The town moved closer to the railroad in the late 1920s. In 1930, church members built a basement in New Mobeetie and moved their worship services there. They built the present sanctuary in 1947, and the church continues to serve as an area spiritual center. (2006)