Their mailing address is in nearby Aubrey, but they're actually located closer to Lincoln Park, which was previously a trailer park that has since grown. They have a nice
website and an active
Facebook page, but they are both more about the here and now than they are about history. A 1973 Texas Historical Marker provides some background:
Organized 1880, with worship services and Sunday School held under trees and a brush arbor. Structure built 1881, by A.B. Harris. Six acre site, including nearby cemetery, were donated by the Rev. William E. Bates (1812-83), retired circuit rider and minister.
Building costs were supplied through members' and friends' donation, which included a horse. Men of the congregation hauled the lumber from the sawmills in East Texas.
This church was the first in the community and has served five generations of residents.
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The Reverend William Edmunds Bates is buried in the cemetery, which dates to the 1870s and is still active, with over a thousand burials. Two of his children were unearthed in the lost Bates Cemetery during construction work in 2007, and their remains were brought here and given a proper burial with their family. The Reverend Bates shares a headstone with his wife and one of their sons, also a minister, and the inscription reads:
Rev. Wm. E. Bates
Oct. 12, 1812 - Apr 25, 1883
His Wife
Susan Wright
Jan. 7, 1816 - Nov. 16, 1897
Their Son
Rev. Eugene T. Bates
Mar. 12, 1842 - Mar. 26, 1915
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A 1973 Texas Historical Marker stands in front of the headstone, and it references the church:
(October 12, 1812 - April 25, 1883)
Born in Amherst County, VA.; licensed in Kentucky (1843) as a Methodist minister. Came to Texas 1851; settled in Denton County. He was appointed (1853) to 300-square-mile Dallas circuit, and traveled it once a month. Admitted 1854 to East Texas Conference, he founded churches at Montague, Pilot Point, Denton, Jacksboro, Gainesville. He was very influential in planting Methodism in North Texas.
He married Susan Wright. They had ten children.
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Not so much related to the church, but one of the Bates children, Edmond Franklin Bates, served as the mayor of Denton, not too far away from here, and he literally wrote the book -- as of 1918 -- about the county, "History and Reminiscences of Denton County". Unfortunately, his final resting place is in an abandoned cemetery on private land just a little south of here.