Salado Methodist Church

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm going to do it justice. Somewhere along Salado Creek, there's a church that's been holding its ground since before the Civil War, before two world wars, before most of Texas was Texas in any modern sense of the word. The Salado Methodist Church.

Congregation organized in 1854. Let that land for a second. Eighteen fifty-four.

And they were still going strong enough, decades later, to put up a proper building in 1890. That's not a congregation. That's a commitment.

Now, before that building went up, somebody had to plan it, and somebody had to go get the wood. The building committee was J.L. Bailey, W.H.

Cawthon, and J.M. Porter. Three names on the deed of responsibility.

But the lumber wasn't going to walk itself to Salado Creek, and Austin was about fifty miles to the south. So two men loaded up their wagons and made the haul. Charlie Bailey and Wallie Harkey.

Fifty miles of Texas road, wagon wheels turning, lumber riding in the back. That's a trip you feel in your back for a week, and they did it so a congregation could have walls and a roof and a place to mean something. And who was riding circuit out to serve that congregation in those early years?

Well, among the preachers who came through was a Rev. J.E. Ferguson.

The marker notes, almost in passing, that he was the father of a Texas governor. Just drops that in there like it's a footnote. The father of a governor, riding out to a creek-side congregation in central Texas.

What makes this story land, though, is the last line on that marker. It says the original members' families still worship there. Not worshipped.

Still worship. The lumber Charlie Bailey and Wallie Harkey hauled from Austin in 1890, the building those three committee men planned, the congregation that took root in 1854 along Salado Creek. Still going.

Some stories don't need an ending. They just keep on.

What the marker says

Building erected 1890 for a congregation organized 1854 at site on Salado Creek. Circuit riders serving congregation included the Rev. J.E. Ferguson, father of a Texas governor. Building committee for this church: J.L. Bailey, W.H. Cawthon, J.M. Porter. Charlie Bailey and Wallie Harkey drove wagons to haul the lumber from Austin, about 50 miles to the south. Original members' families still worship here. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1969