DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. The United Methodist Church of Lott, Falls County — a congregation with a beginning that was anything but quiet. This church was organized in January of 1890, the very same year the town of Lott itself was incorporated.
So the people of Lott were building a community and a congregation at the same time, from the ground up, together. The first meetings were held in the Masonic lodge building, and leading those early gatherings was the Reverend R. V.
Hocutt. Now, in 1892, the trustees of the church made their move — they purchased land at this very location from the Texas Town Site Company. They had a home for their congregation.
They started building a sanctuary. And then the sky had other ideas. That first sanctuary was destroyed by a storm — and here's the part that really grabs you — it was destroyed before it was even completed.
Before the last nail was driven, before the building was finished, a storm took it down. But this congregation was not the kind to walk away from a piece of ground they'd purchased and a community they were building. They came back.
They replaced what was lost, and by 1895, the original section of the present building was standing. Over the years the congregation went by different names — Lott Methodist Church, South, and Grace Methodist among them — before settling into the name it carries today: the United Methodist Church of Lott. Some churches have long memories.
This one has a long story worth remembering.
What the marker says
This church was organized in January 1890, the same year Lott was incorporated as a town. The first meetings were held in the Masonic lodge building under the direction of the Rev. R. V. Hocutt. Trustees of the church purchased land at this location in 1892 from the Texas Town Site Company. The first sanctuary here was destroyed by a storm before it was completed, and was replaced by the original section of the present building in 1895. Known earlier as Lott Methodist Church, South, and Grace Methodist, the congregation was renamed.