Early History of Bellville Methodist Church

The preacher behind these camp meetings was John Wesley Kenney. He gave his first Texas sermon at Samuel Gates's home on Jackson Creek in March 1834 and soon preached from Gay Hill down to San Felipe, Columbia and Brazoria and west as far as Gonzales. That fall, on Caney Creek in northern Austin County, he held one of the first camp meetings in Texas west of the Trinity. He served in the army from September 1835 to April 1836, and when Alexander, Fowler and Ruter came as missionaries in 1837 they made his home their base.

What the plaque says

Early History of Bellville Methodist Church The heritage of Bellville Methodist Church dates to 1822, when Thomas B. Bell came to Texas from Florida with Stephen F. Austin's Old Three Hundred colonists. He settled in an area west of the Brazos River, and donated fifty acres of land between Piney and Caney Creeks to be used for a church and camp meetings. When Methodist missionary Henry Stephenson arrived in Texas in 1834, he found plans underway for a camp meeting. At an 1835 meeting, future Alamo hero William Barret Travis was a featured speaker, and promised to assist in the effort to bring Methodist preachers to Texas. Missionary Robert Alexander conducted services at the Caney Creek camp meeting site in August 1839. Methodists continued to use the campground for worship services until the early 1880s, when the land was sold. Funds from the sale were used to build a German Methodist Episcopal Church in Bellville in 1882. The building was used by German and English speaking congregations on alternate Sundays. The Methodist Episcopal Church, south, was organized in 1886, and a new sanctuary was completed on this site that year. The Rev. J.P. Childers served as the first minister. Texas Sesquicentennial 1836-1986

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Lake Somerville State Park and Trailway — 35 mi
  Two park units on an 11,000-acre lake between Austin and College Station, joined by a thirteen-mile trailway for hikers, cyclists and riders with primitive camps along the way.

More markers nearby

• Bellville — steps away
• First National Bank of Bellville — 0.2 mi
• Original Site of St. Mary's Episcopal Church — 0.2 mi
• Bellville Concordia — 0.8 mi