The First United Methodist Church of Cotulla

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, friends, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, out on the south Texas brush country, in the town of Cotulla, there's a church with a story that stretches back to 1881. That's when a congregation gathered itself together under the name of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and just like that, Cotulla had its very first Protestant church.

Not a grand building, mind you. Not yet. The first services were held right in the home of a man named John Freeman, with the Reverend W.

H. Keck doing the preaching. Picture that: hymnals in the parlor, a congregation squeezed in wherever there was room.

That's where it all began. Then, just two years on, in 1883, the members built themselves a proper frame chapel, set at the site of what would become the parsonage. Now here's the thing about that little chapel; it wasn't just a Methodist house.

It was the only church facility in town, and so the Presbyterians came, and the Baptists came, and they all shared that one modest roof. Community doesn't get much more literal than that. Fast forward to 1906, and the congregation, now under the pastorate of the Reverend Temple G.

Woolls, raised up a brick sanctuary, the one standing to this day. Solid, enduring, built to last. And in 1928, they added an educational building, because a church that's been teaching since a parlor in 1881 isn't about to stop.

From John Freeman's front room to a brick sanctuary on the south Texas plain, that's a long road, and every step of it is real.

What the marker says

The first Protestant church in Cotulla, this congregation was organized in 1881 as the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. The first services were held in the home of John Freeman by the Rev. W. H. Keck. In 1883 the members built a frame chapel at the site of the present parsonage. The only church facility in town, it was shared with Presbyterian and Baptist congregations. The current brick sanctuary was constructed in 1906 during the pastorate of the Rev. Temple G. Woolls. An educational building was added in 1928.