Historical Marker
Fairview Methodist Church
Fairview, Wilson County · Texas
Erected 1972
Fairview grew from the German and Polish settlement of western Wilson County in the late 1850s. Old Rock Church, a mile north, was the scene of revival meetings and of the trials of outlaws caught by the last of the local vigilance committees, under Charles Westermann and Drake Gilliland. A post office opened in 1868, and by 1892 Fairview had four churches, three general stores, a drugstore, a barbershop and 100 residents. The post office closed in 1908. The town declined in the 1920s and 1930s, then grew again to 322 inhabitants by 1990.
What the plaque says
Fairview Methodist Church Organized before 1876, holding services in schoolhouse until building site was given by W. F. and Jennie Mitchell and J. F. and Martha Prewitt. A small red rock meeting house was built, serving until wrecked by tropical storm in 1886. In 1891, during pastorate of the Rev. A. J. King, the members built a frame structure, which in turn was wrecked by a storm in 1942. Out of the ruins, third building was constructed in 1943. Fairview congregation merged with Floresville church in 1955. Memorial services are held each year at Fairview Cemetery. (1972)
Where it stands
29.08836, -98.32441 · Directions
Worth the stop nearby
- Mission Espada and the Espada Aqueduct — 18 miThe southernmost San Antonio mission and the oldest Spanish aqueduct in the United States, still carrying river water over Sixmile Creek to the fields after nearly three centuries.
- Mission San Juan — 19 miThe mission near the river bend where the San Antonio got its name in 1691, with an unfinished church foundation and farm fields still watered by an eighteenth-century acequia.
- San Antonio Missions National Historical Park — 21 miFour working parish churches on the Mission Trail south of downtown, with the visitor center at Mission San Jose, the Queen of the Missions, and the descendants who still worship there.
- Mission Concepción — 23 miA stone church dedicated in 1755 that has never fallen into ruin, its convento ceilings still painted, and the ground where the Texas Revolution's fight for San Antonio began.