DUANE
Duane's take
Here's the story as the official marker tells it — and it's one worth hearing slow. St. James United Methodist Church of Huntsville, Walker County, Texas.
This congregation was organized shortly after the Civil War, built on the hope of people who had just come through something no one should have to survive. From the very beginning, its purpose was clear: to serve the newly freed slaves of the Huntsville area. The earliest worship services were conducted in 1868, right here, in the Union Church building at this site.
Now, that land was donated by a local French merchant named John Courtade — and the sanctuary wasn't held by one fellowship alone. It was shared, in those early years, with a Baptist congregation. Two communities of faith, one house.
That says something about what those first years asked of people. The Methodist Episcopal Church — also known, with quiet dignity, as the Freedmen's Church — took root here with five trustees who stepped up and made it permanent. Their names deserve to be said out loud: Straughter Hume, Joshua Houston, William Baines, W.
Fayle, and William Sinclair. In the 1870s, those five men purchased the Union Church building outright. And the original membership — the people who filled those pews and made that place sing — included Solomon Jones, Jeff Lockhart, John Clark, Mary Baines, Sarah Smithers, Harriet Hendricks, Eliza Jones, Kizziah Lacy, and others whose names the marker acknowledges without forgetting.
For many years this structure did double duty, serving not just as a sanctuary but as a schoolhouse. Think about that — the same building where people prayed on Sunday taught their children to read the rest of the week. Some of the teachers who walked through that door were Lizzie Stone, Texana Snow, Jacob Cozier, O.
A. Todd, and Mollie Flood. In 1894, a new wooden sanctuary with a belfry was constructed right here at this site.
And under the leadership of The Rev. Lee of Navasota — the first black presiding elder — the church experienced a period of considerable growth. Since 1868, St.
James United Methodist Church has played a significant role in the development of Huntsville. That's over a century of a community building itself up from freedom's first uncertain days — on donated land, in a shared building, with five men willing to sign their names and a congregation willing to do the work. That's not just church history.
That's the story of a people claiming their place in this world.
What the marker says
This congregation was organized shortly after the Civil War to serve the newly freed slaves of the Huntsville area. The earliest worship services were conducted in 1868 in the Union Church building at this site. The sanctuary, located on land donatd by local French merchant John Courtade, was shared with a Baptist fellowship. Straughter Hume, Joshua Houston, William Baines, W. Fayle, and William Sinclair, the first trustees of the Methodist Episcopal Church, purchased the Union Church building in the 1870s. Also known as the Freedmen's Church, the original membership included Solomon Jones, Jeff Lockhart, John Clark, Mary Baines, Sarah Smithers, Harriet Hendricks, Eliza Jones, Kizziah Lacy, and others. For many years the structure also served as a schoolhouse. Some of the teachers were Lizzie Stone, Texana Snow, Jacob Cozier, O. A. Todd, and Mollie Flood. A new wooden sanctuary with a belfry was constructed at this site in 1894. Under the leadership of The Rev. Lee of Navasota, the first black presiding elder, the church experienced a period of considerable growth. Since 1868 St. James United Methodist Church has played a significant role in the development of Huntsville.