Prairie Point Church and Cemetery

Duane's take

The way the marker tells it, here's the story of Prairie Point Church and Cemetery in Navarro County. Pioneer settlers in this part of Texas gathered in 1855 to organize a Methodist Episcopal Church, South. Just think about that for a moment.

Folks carving a life out of raw land, and one of their first orders of business was to come together and build something that would last. Five years after that first meeting, the congregation had grown enough, and was determined enough, to raise a sanctuary right here at this site. Now, the land didn't come from nowhere.

It came from a charter member, a man named Zachariah Westbrook, born in 1809, who along with his wife Mary, born in 1813, made the donation that made it all possible. The Westbrooks didn't just give the ground for the church, either. Their donation included the original tract of the cemetery lying right next to it.

That cemetery has been keeping its quiet record ever since. The earliest marked grave belongs to A. J.

Morgan, who died in 1871. We don't know much more than that name and that year, but a marked grave means somebody cared enough to mark it, and that says something. Zachariah Westbrook passed in 1878, and Mary followed in 1896, and the congregation kept on going long after them both.

Prairie Point Methodist Church held on all the way until 1910, when it disbanded. But here's the thing that makes this story something more than a simple ending. The building didn't fall to ruin.

It didn't get swallowed up by the pasture. It kept right on serving the people around it, as a community center for the surrounding rural area, just like it always had. Some things, once planted deep enough, just refuse to stop growing.

What the marker says

Pioneer area settlers met in 1855 to organize a Methodist Episcopal Church, South. Five years later, the congregation built a sanctuary at this site on land donated by charter member Zachariah Westbrook (1809-1878) and his wife, Mary (Agnew) (1813-1896). The Westbrooks' donation also included the original tract of the adjacent cemetery. The earliest marked grave there is for A. J. Morgan, who died in 1871. Prairie Point Methodist Church disbanded in 1910, but the building continues in use as a community center for the surrounding rural area. Texas Sesquicentennial 1836 - 1986