DeKalb First United Methodist Church - DeKalb, TX - Methodist Churches on Waymarking.com

A 1985 Texas Historical Marker provides some history:

The Rev. William Stevenson led the pioneering efforts of Methodist circuit riders in northeast Texas in 1815. He preached on both sides of the Red River, although Protestant services were then illegal in the Spanish territory of Texas. Methodist "societies" began to spring up in this area in the 1820s and 1830s.

Dr. J.W.P. McKenzie started a Methodist mission in DeKalb in 1836, just five years after the town was founded. This area was then considered part of Miller County, Arkansas. The Rev. John B. Denton, who served the church in 1837, was later killed in the Village Creek Indian Battle in Tarrant County. The city and county of Denton were named for him.

The Methodists' first church building was a log structure which also served as a schoolhouse. It stood in the southeast corner of Old DeKalb Cemetery. After the arrival of the Texas & Pacific Railroad, the church moved to a new building at Fulton and Church St. in 1882. The Presbyterian and Christian churches also shared that facility. A Sunday School program was begun in 1883. The church moved to its present location in 1913 and has occupied three buildings here. Three Methodist congregations, Austin Chapel, Oak Grove, and Springhill, have merged with the fellowship.

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The church's website also has some good historical background, overlapping what's on the historical marker and then filling in some gaps. They indicate that this was the first church of any kind in DeKalb, and it may have been the first in Bowie County. After they outgrew the original log cabin church building at the Old DeKalb Cemetery, they moved closer to town (1882) so as to take advantage of the newly-arrived railroad. In 1913, Mr. and Mrs. William S. Proctor donated this site for a third sanctuary, which only lasted for ten years before a fire destroyed it. The fourth sanctuary held its first services on Thanksgiving Day in 1923, and an educational building was added in 1950. It saw its last use in March of 1965, and the current sanctuary began life in October of that same year. Why there is a stone woven into the building's façade out front, with "Methodist Church 1836-1939" is unclear.

Active church?: Yes Year Built: 1965 Service times: Sunday, 10:50 AM Website: [Web Link]

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