Blue Ridge Methodist Church

The town's own story starts with grass. A 1939 newspaper retrospective on the Collin County History site says Blue Ridge was named because it was built on a ridge that old-timers said was covered with blue grass. I. D. Sellars and Henry Eakle farmed the townsite from 1873. The first store, run by Bill and Jim Meyers in a one-room cabin with a dirt floor, held $50 worth of stock. A log school opened in 1874 with six pupils. Julius Connor and Bill Meyers bought the townsite from Zac Abernathy in 1876, and the first gin started in 1877.

What the plaque says

Blue Ridge Methodist Church The town of Blue Ridge was established in 1876. Four years later, the Rev. W. L. Fagg donated land for a Methodist Protestant Church. He served as the church's first pastor and was succeeded by the Rev. Martin Gentry. A tabernacle erected behind the church was used for summer revivals. In 1913 W. L. Fagg and his wife bought a tract of land on this site from M. L. and Goldie Fagg. The church building was moved here, closer to downtown, so that the congregation might grow with the community. The building survived a devastating 1919 tornado that tore through Blue Ridge. The church was expanded in 1923 with the purchase of adjoining property from C. D. and Hettie Fagg Manning. The Methodist Protestant Church joined with the older Methodist Episcopal Church of Blue Ridge, and became known as First Methodist Church. During the Depression Era, the church was unable to pay a minister. Members continued to hold Sunday School classes, support the Ladies' Aid Organization and attend summer revivals. Ten members formed a Missionary Society in the 1940s. They raised funds through quilting bees, holiday dinners, ice cream suppers and bazaars in order to pay the pastor's salary, conference fees and utility bills. The church thrived in the 1960s and 1970s. It joined the United Methodist Churches in the nearby communities of Trenton and Whitewright to form the Trinity Cooperative Parish. In 1976 the United Methodist Women and United Methodist Men programs were established, and plans for a new educational building began in 1977. The First United Methodist Church of Blue Ridge continues in the traditions of its founders with programs of worship and service. (2000)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Heard Natural Science Museum & Wildlife Sanctuary — 16 mi
  A 289-acre sanctuary in McKinney that Bessie Heard founded at the age of 80, with five habitats, a 50-acre wetland and 6.5 miles of trails.
• Audie Murphy / American Cotton Museum — 21 mi
  A Greenville museum of Hunt County's military heroes, including Audie Murphy, and of cotton, which keeps the engine of what it says was the world's largest inland cotton compress.
• Sam Rayburn House State Historic Site — 22 mi
  The two-story farmhouse west of Bonham that the longtime Speaker of the House built in 1916 and kept as his home, left as he lived in it and open as a museum since 1975.

More markers nearby

• Blue Ridge — 0.3 mi
• George Washington Smith — 0.8 mi
• Frognot Community — 2.5 mi
• Verona Methodist Church — 3.8 mi