DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Way back in 1869, a congregation came together in Calvert and called itself the Calvert Methodist Church. Three years later, in 1872, they put up their first sanctuary right here on this very site.
Now, a church is only as strong as the people who fill it — and this one drew some remarkable figures through its doors. Between 1885 and 1886, a man named the Reverend Seth Ward stood at that pulpit. Remember that name.
Ward would go on to become the first native Texan ever named a Methodist bishop. Then, from 1895 to 1899, the Reverend Dr. James Kilgore took his turn — and he wasn't just passing through, either.
Kilgore would become a founder of Southern Methodist University. Not a bad pair of early pastors for one congregation. But the story doesn't stop with who preached here.
In 1923, when the congregation raised up the present church building you can still see today, they decided the time had come to honor a man who had ridden these roads long before any of this was settled ground. The Reverend Joseph P. Sneed — born in 1804, died in 1881 — had come to Texas all the way back in 1838, and for many years after that he served churches across Robertson and Milam counties, circuit rider style, covering the land the way only a man on horseback could.
So they changed the name. Sneed Memorial Methodist Church. A circuit rider's name, carried forward in timber and stone.
What the marker says
This congregation, organized in 1869 as the Calvert Methodist Church, built its first sanctuary on this site in 1872. Among the early pastors were (1885-86) the Rev. Seth Ward, later first native Texan to be named a Methodist bishop; and (1895-99) the Rev. Dr. James Kilgore, a founder of Southern Methodist University. In 1923 when the present church building was erected, the name was changed in memory of the Rev. Joseph P. Sneed (1804-81), a circuit rider who came to Texas in 1838, then served for many years in Robertson and Milam county churches.