Callisburg United Methodist Church

The old denominational name on this congregation's records carries a history. The Handbook of Texas says the Methodist Episcopal Church, South formed after the 1844 General Conference, when debates over slavery grew so intense that delegates from slaveholding states withdrew. Texas Methodists voted in 1845 to join the Southern church, and Northern Methodists could not organize in Texas until 1853. Methodist congregations in Texas had included Black members since 1822, often in separate services. Callisburg's church, organized in 1896, belonged to the Southern branch; the blacksmith Sam Callis, the town's founder, was a Methodist.

What the plaque says

Callisburg United Methodist Church Callisburg founder Samuel Callis, an area blacksmith, was a Methodist who is thought to have been an original member of the Callisburg congregation of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. According to local oral history, this group was organized as early as the 1880s, with meetings held in the homes of charter members and in a local schoolhouse. According to church records, the congregation was officially organized in August 1896, with the Rev. R. F. Bryant as pastor. The first baptisms were recorded at that time and included members of the Criswell, Arnn, and Ayres families. Church records from the late 1890s show almost 60 members. On January 3, 1898, land on this site was purchased from Mr. and Mrs. J. T. Ayres for $25. William Campbell, assisted by his eight-year-old son Lawrence, crafted the first church building. The sanctuary was remodeled in 1954, with hardwood floors added. In 1956, the Mt. Zion Methodist Church building was moved to this site from about seven miles northeast of Callisburg, near Dexter, and converted into a parsonage. Sunday School classrooms and a front foyer were added in that year. The Callisburg United Methodist Church celebrated 100 years in its sanctuary in 1998 with a year of historical programs. The thriving membership continues to be active in worship and service to the community. (1998)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Great Hanging Memorial — 8.9 mi
  Two granite monuments in a Gainesville park, dedicated in 2014, for the Cooke County men the Confederate militia hanged in October 1862 on suspicion of Unionism.
• Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge — 15 mi
  A 1946 refuge on the Big Mineral Arm of Lake Texoma, laid over land bought for Denison Dam and the site of the vanished railroad town of Hagerman, now a winter stop for geese.
• Lake Murray State Park — 25 mi
  Oklahoma's first and largest state park, built by New Deal crews on former Chickasaw Nation land south of Ardmore, with Tucker Tower, a governors' retreat never finished, on a point above the lake.
• Eisenhower State Park — 25 mi
  A bluff-top park on Lake Texoma opened in 1958 on land leased from the Corps of Engineers, in the Red River country of Fort Johnson, Colbert's Ferry and the Butterfield stages.

More markers nearby

• First Oil Well in Cooke County — steps away
• Gainesville — 3.6 mi
• The Cross Timbers — 3.7 mi
• Diamond Horse Ranch — 5.6 mi