Cedar Bayou United Methodist Church

Robert Alexander, the church's founder, was born in Smith County, Tennessee, in 1811 and was appointed missionary to Texas in April 1837 with Martin Ruter and Littleton Fowler. He was the first of the three to enter the republic, crossing the Sabine on August 19, and formed the San Augustine circuit that September and the first Methodist missionary society in Texas in October. After Ruter's death in 1838 he chaired the board that founded Rutersville College, which opened in 1840. He went on to serve as presiding elder of several districts, in a Texas ministry of forty-five years.

What the plaque says

Cedar Bayou United Methodist Church This congregation was organized in 1844 at the home of early settler Hance Baker, under the direction of the Rev. robert Alexander, a noted Methodist missionary during Texas' frontier period. with twenty-seven members by its second meeting, the church held worship services in Baker's home until a log sanctuary was built near this site sometime after 1847. The Rev. L. S. Friend served as first pastor of the church, which originally was called Alexander Chapel for its founder. The church building became a gathering place for the small Cedar Bayou community, and camp meetings were held on the grounds each summer. In 1853, the only Sunday School in the district was held here, and the congregation's emphasis on Christian education has continued over the years. By the early 1900s the church had begun providing neighboring communities with Sunday School teachers and literature. Cedar Bayou United Methodist Church continues to reflect the ideals and traditions of its founders. With historic ties to Texas' years an an independent republic and to the beginning of Methodism in the state, it remains a significant element in the area's heritage. (1984)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• San Jacinto Battleground State Historic Site — 9.2 mi
  The 1,200 acres of coastal prairie and marsh where the Texas Revolution ended in eighteen minutes, and the 567-foot shaft of fossil-studded limestone that has stood over them since 1939.
• Space Center Houston — 17 mi
  The visitor center of NASA's Johnson Space Center at Clear Lake, with flown capsules, a shuttle replica riding a 747, and tram tours to Mission Control and a Saturn V.
• Emancipation Park — 26 mi
  The Third Ward park that freedpeople bought for Juneteenth in 1872, rebuilt in 2017 on Emancipation Avenue and still the center of the city's June 19 celebration.
• Sam Houston Park and the Heritage Society — 27 mi
  Ten historic buildings gathered in a downtown park below the skyscrapers, among them the 1870 house of the Reverend Jack Yates, built five years after emancipation.

More markers nearby

• Cedar Bayou Masonic Lodge No. 321, A. F. & A. M. — steps away
• Near Home Site of John Peter Sjolander — 3.3 mi
• Bell Prairie — 3.8 mi
• Ashbel Smith, M. D. — 3.9 mi