Christian Methodist Episcopal Church

The church's denomination took its present name in 1954, when the General Conference of the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church, meeting in Memphis, renamed it the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church. In Texas a West Texas Conference had been organized in 1871, the East Texas Conference held its first annual session at Marshall on November 6, 1872, and a Northwest Conference followed. Bishop M. F. Jamison is credited with much of the church's Texas success. By 1990 it had five Texas conferences and some 45,000 communicants in about 500 churches, the largest being Cedar Crest in Dallas, with 1,500 members.

What the plaque says

Christian Methodist Episcopal Church Several black families were residing in Gillespie County by the 1870s. A schoolhouse was built in 1877 on property adjacent to this later church site. Blacks probably met in the school for worship services before this church was completed 10 years later. In 1887 Oscar Basse deeded this lot to William McLane, Silas Russel, James Scruggins, and James Tinker as trustees of the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church. Members of the congregation erected this simple frame structure, with its small steeple, atop a native limestone foundation. In recent years, when the local black community dispersed, use of the church building decreased and deterioration set n. Cora Phillips, widow of Paul Phillips, well-known Gillespie County veterinarian and church trustee, suggested restoring the structure for use by youth organizations united in 1974. The youth, representing half a dozen faiths, carried out repair and renovation work and gained national recognition for their endeavors. Dr. Robert Mosby, son of the black congregation's third pastor, the Rev. William H. Mosby, preached at ceremonies in February 1976, when the restored building was dedicated as the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church. (1977)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• National Museum of the Pacific War — 0.3 mi
  A museum of the war in the Pacific in Chester Nimitz's hometown, dedicated at his request to the two million who served with him, with a garden given by Japan.
• Vereins Kirche and Main Street — 0.7 mi
  The octagonal Society Church on Fredericksburg's market square, rebuilt in stone in the 1930s, beside a main street laid out like a Rhine village.
• Fort Martin Scott — 1.7 mi
  An army post of 1848 on Barons Creek beside the German town, where soldiers kept the peace of a Comanche trade and paid the merchants in hard cash.
• Luckenbach — 8.9 mi
  A store, saloon and dance hall on Grape Creek that a humorist bought in 1971, declared a free state of mind, and turned into a pilgrimage for Texas music.

More markers nearby

• African American Community in Gillespie County — 0.2 mi
• Nimitz Hotel — 0.3 mi
• Birthplace of Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, USN — 0.4 mi
• Old Central Drugstore — 0.6 mi