Wesley Chapel Methodist Church

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and here's how I'm gonna tell it to you. Out where Richland Creek and Ash Creek come together, at that quiet fork in the land, something took root back in 1877. The Reverend Austin Lockhart, an itinerant Methodist minister riding for the West Texas Conference, showed up in that country and established a congregation.

Now, an itinerant minister doesn't plant himself in one spot. He travels, he preaches, he moves on. But what he started at those forks, he left behind.

And it held. First services were held in a nearby log schoolhouse. Picture that, folks gathered on rough benches, voices lifted in song under a log roof, nothing fancy, just faithful.

Later, a proper church building went up near what is now the Pelham Cemetery. And then, because a living congregation keeps growing, a new sanctuary was erected at this very site in 1911. Twenty-three years after that, in 1934, they built again.

Wesley Chapel Methodist Church. It has kept the Sunday school going, kept the choir singing, and reached out to the young and the elderly alike, all in service to the rural Pelham community. Some institutions are important because of a single grand moment.

This one is important because of every ordinary Sunday it showed up. That's a story worth stoppin' for.

What the marker says

This congregation was established at the forks of Richland and Ash creeks in 1877 by the Rev. Austin Lockhart, an itinerant Methodist minister of the West Texas Conference. Initial services were held in a nearby log schoolhouse and later in a church building near the present-day Pelham Cemetery. New sanctuaries were erected at this site in 1911 and in 1934. Wesley Chapel Methodist Church is an important local institution with a tradition of supporting a Sunday school, choir, and numerous youth and elderly outreach programs and activities for members of the rural Pelham community. Sesquicentennial of Texas Statehood 1845-1995