Poetry Methodist Church

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and here's how I'm going to tell it to you. Way out in Kaufman County, there's a little community that goes by the name of Poetry. Now that name alone ought to stop you mid-sip of your coffee, but we'll get there.

The story starts back in 1845, when a man named Elisha Turner founded the place. Back then, folks called it Turners Point; straightforward, practical, the kind of name that tells you exactly who showed up first and planted a flag. Elisha Turner showed up, and Elisha Turner's name went on the map.

Simple as that. A decade passes. Ten years of Texas living, which is its own kind of endurance sport.

Then in 1855, the Methodist congregation decided it was time to put down roots in a more permanent way. They needed land for a church, and they went to Zachariah Turner and his wife Martha to get it. The price?

Twenty dollars. Twenty dollars for the original church site, and the deed was witnessed by a man named the Reverend J. W.

Fields, a Methodist circuit rider living right there in Kaufman County. Now the marker says he may have been the organizer and the first minister of that congregation, and I'll tell you, when a circuit rider is the one witnessing your deed, it's not hard to imagine he had a hand in the whole operation. Fast forward to 1886.

The town's name has changed by now. Turners Point is gone. The community is called Poetry.

And on this same hallowed patch of ground, a man named J. H. Tate and his wife Nancy donated the site outright; no twenty dollars this time, just a gift.

Here's the thing that really gets me about this story. That circuit rider, the Reverend Fields and those who followed in his tradition, they only came around once a month. Once a month, friends.

One Sunday in thirty, give or take. And yet somehow, the membership of that little church out in Poetry, Kaufman County, Texas, grew to one hundred and nineteen souls in those early days. Nineteenth preached once a month, congregation closing in on one-twenty.

You do the math on the faith it took to keep that pew warm the other three Sundays. Poetry, Texas. The name pulls you in, and the story holds you there.

What the marker says

Originally called Turners Point, this community was founded in 1845 by Elisha Turner. In 1855 the Methodist congregation paid Zachariah Turner and his wife Martha $20 for the original church site. The Rev. J. W. Fields, a Methodist circuit rider living in Kaufman County, witnessed the deed and may have been the organizer and first minister. After the name of the town changed to Poetry, this site was donated in 1886 by J. H. Tate and his wife Nancy. The circuit rider preached only once a month, yet the membership grew to 119 in those early days.