Utopia Methodist Church

Duane's take

Here's the story as the official marker tells it, and I'm passing it straight along to you. Way out in Uvalde County, in the little community of Utopia, there stands a Gothic sanctuary with a past worth knowing. The Utopia Methodist Church got its start in 1866, established as part of the Uvalde-Kerrville Mission.

That's a wide stretch of country to tend to, and before long the congregation found itself part of the Uvalde Circuit. But here's the thing about those early years. Before there were walls or windows or a proper roof overhead, people gathered in the pecan grove behind where the church stands today.

They came together under brush arbors, those open-air shelters pieced together from branches and shade, and they held camp meetings in the open Texas air. The first of those meetings was in 1868, and the man who led it was the Reverend A. J.

Potter. Now, the marker calls him a noted Civil War chaplain and circuit rider, and that tells you something right there about the kind of man he was. He'd seen the worst of things and kept riding, kept preaching, kept showing up in places that needed him.

Then came the 1890s, early in that decade, and the congregation decided it was time to build something lasting. Something with intention. They raised a Gothic sanctuary, and it wasn't built by strangers for hire.

The members themselves did much of the work. And the land it stands on? That was given by two men: the Reverend Irving Jones and R.

H. Kincheloe. So the next time you pass through Utopia, take a moment with that old church.

The pecan grove is still there, behind it. And somewhere in the shade of those trees, if you're quiet enough, you can almost hear the echo of that first meeting, 1868, voices rising up through the branches.

What the marker says

Established in 1866 as part of the Uvalde-Kerrville Mission; later in the Uvalde Circuit. Pecan grove behind present church was site of many pioneer camp meetings under brush arbors. The first was held in 1868 by the Rev. A. J. Potter, noted Civil War chaplain and circuit rider. This Gothic sanctuary, built in early 1890s with members doing much of the work, is on a site given by the Rev. Irving Jones and R. H. Kincheloe. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark, 1967.