Poolville United Methodist Church

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Poolville United Methodist Church, out in Parker County. Now, six people. That's where this story starts: just six members of the Goshen Methodist Episcopal Church, South, way out in the eastern part of Parker County, who in February of 1885 decided they were going to do something bold.

They were going to leave what they knew and go build something new in the farming community of Poolville. Six people. You might think that's not enough to move a mountain.

But then, you might not know Texas farmers. They called on the Reverend J. Davis Crockett to be their first minister, and the little congregation got to work.

Now, they didn't have walls yet, didn't have a steeple, didn't have pews; so they did what communities out here have always done when they needed something and didn't yet have it. They borrowed what was already there. Worship services were held in the Poolville schoolhouse, Sunday after Sunday, year after year, all the way until 1896, when at last the sanctuary you can still point to today was completed.

Eleven years of meeting in a schoolhouse. Eleven years of building something invisible before they ever broke ground on something you could see. And that congregation (grown now, rooted now) went right on providing service and leadership to Poolville and the surrounding area, the way a thing does when it was built by people who meant it from the start.

Six members, February 1885. Sometimes that's all it takes.

What the marker says

In February 1885, six members of the Goshen Methodist Episcopal Church, South, in the eastern part of Parker County, left to form a Methodist church in the farming community of Poolville. The Reverend J. Davis Crockett was called to serve as their first minister. Worship services were held in the Poolville schoolhouse until 1896 when this sanctuary was completed. Throughout its history, Poolville Methodist Church has provided service and leadership to the community and surrounding area. (1983)