Brushie Prairie Methodist Church

The church began as Post Oak Grove. A Navarro County history says the Rev. John J. Farmer organized it on October 13, 1874, in a log schoolhouse built by Thomas S. Slater, who became its first Sunday school superintendent. The first building was a box house, 30 by 35 feet. It took the name Brushie Prairie in 1910 and rode a string of circuits, among them Frost, Dawson, Emmett and Dresden. Nineteen young men from the congregation were called to the ministry. When the church closed, its roll book went to the Dawson Methodists.

What the plaque says

Brushie Prairie Methodist Church Organized south of Frost in 1874, this fellowship grew from earlier meetings conducted in a log schoolhouse. Originally known as Post Oak Methodist Church, it was chartered with thirty-five members under the leadership of the Rev. John J. Farmer. Brothers J. M., W. D., and E. W. Johnson, and F. M. Johnson gave the land in 1893 where the present structure stands. In 1914 the church was renamed Brushie Prairie. In 1952 the Mt. Zion Methodists joined the congregation. After 90 years the church disbanded in June 1964. An annual homecoming is held here each June. (1981)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Petroleum Industry Park — 18 mi
  The pipes and drilling tower mark where a city water well struck oil on June 9, 1894, the start of the first Texas field to produce oil and gas in important quantities.
• Blind Lemon Memorial Cemetery — 21 mi
  The Freestone County grave of the Texas blues singer Blind Lemon Jefferson, who recorded for Paramount in Chicago from 1926 and died there in December 1929.
• Hill County Courthouse — 23 mi
  Wesley C. Dodson's limestone Second Empire courthouse of 1890 on the Hillsboro square, gutted by fire on New Year's Day 1993 and rededicated in 1999 after a rebuilding that two Willie Nelson concerts helped pay for.
• Confederate Reunion Grounds State Historic Site — 26 mi
  Where Limestone County Confederate veterans gathered each summer from 1888, later a water supplier in the Mexia oil boom, now a Texas Historical Commission site on the Navasota River.

More markers nearby

• Near Site of Trading Post of Dr. George Washington Hill — 2.4 mi
• Raleigh Cemetery — 3.4 mi
• Navarro Mills Community — 3.9 mi
• Ash Creek (Pelham) School — 4.0 mi