Elizabeth Chapel Methodist Church

Robert Alexander, who organized this congregation, was among the first Methodist missionaries in the Republic, crossing the Sabine on August 19, 1837. A Tennessean, he formed the first Methodist missionary society in Texas that October at a camp meeting on Caney Creek and led the board that opened Rutersville College in 1840. When the church split over slavery in 1844, his colleagues sent him to the Louisville Convention that founded the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, the body that later received this chapel's land.

What the plaque says

Elizabeth Chapel Methodist Church First Methodist Church in the county. Began as Sunday School in home of Isaac addison, early settler. Later moved to home of Mrs. Elizabeth Scott. Organized about 1839 by Robt. Alexander, famous pioneer minister. Soon a small, hand-hewn frame building was erected and named for Mrs. Scott. Land containing both the church and cemetery was given to Methodist Episcopal Church, South, by Mrs. Scott's son, Phillip, in 1878. Membership reached peak of 165 in 1885. Church merged with the Cooks Point church about 1907. (1970)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• George H.W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum — 17 mi
  The library of the forty-first president on the Texas A&M campus, opened in 1997, where George and Barbara Bush and their daughter Robin are buried in a family plot on the grounds.
• Lake Somerville State Park and Trailway — 22 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.
• Independence and Old Baylor Park — 25 mi
  A crossroads north of Brenham that was the richest town in Texas when it won Baylor University in 1845, refused the railroad, and lost the college to Waco and Belton in 1886.
• Milam County Courthouse and Jail — 27 mi
  Cameron's 1892 Renaissance Revival courthouse and the 1895 St. Louis-built jail beside it, now the county museum, are listed together on the National Register.

More markers nearby

• Fort Tenoxtitlan — steps away
• Cooks Point United Methodist Church — 0.2 mi
• Cooks Point — 1.8 mi
• Near Homesite of Judge Andrew S. Broaddus — 1.8 mi