United Methodist Church of Wortham

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm happy to pass it along. Way out in Freestone County, in the little town of Wortham, there stands a Methodist church with a story that stretches back to 1867. That's when the Reverend J.

Hill Bounds organized the congregation. Now, Bounds wasn't a man born to Texas soil. He was an immigrant from Mississippi who had loaded up his family, hitched everything to an ox-wagon, and made the long haul to Texas back in 1865.

Two years after that journey, he was already building something that would last. That tells you something about the man. In those early days, the church didn't have a place to call its own.

It shared a two-story building with the local Masonic Lodge, and so did the other churches in Wortham. The lodge upstairs, the faithful below, everybody making do. But the Bounds family wasn't finished giving.

J. Hill Bounds had a son named T. A.

Bounds, and that son donated the present site for the church. A central location, right there in Wortham, for keeps. The building standing on that site today was built in 1925, and it has seen some things.

Bishop Kenneth Copeland, born in 1912, joined this very church as a boy. And at seventeen years old, he stood up and held a revival right there. Think about that.

A teenager running a revival in the church where he grew up. Copeland would go on to serve the Texas Conference. Then in the 1930s, another great voice came through.

Bishop John C. Broomfield led a revival here as well. Two bishops, one congregation, one corner of Freestone County.

The ox-wagon that carried the Bounds family to Texas in 1865 is long gone, but the church J. Hill Bounds organized two years later is still standing. Some things you build to last.

What the marker says

Congregation organized in 1867 by the Rev. J. Hill Bounds, an immigrant from Mississippi who brought his family to Texas by ox-wagon in 1865. At first this church, as well as others in Wortham, shared a two-story building with the local Masonic Lodge. T. A. Bounds (son of J. Hill Bounds) donated this present, centrally located site. Bishop Kenneth Copeland (born 1912) of the Texas Conference joined this church as a boy, and at 17 held a revival here. A 1930s revival leader was Bishop John C. Broomfield. Present edifice was built 1925.