First Methodist Church of Dayton

Dayton's Methodists date their organized start to a mission founded in 1863, with 1855 as the first recorded service in West Liberty, according to a 2019 talk by speaker Susan Seaberg reported in Bluebonnet News. In 1865 William Monk became the first appointed preacher, serving 112 white and 54 Black members. The town had not yet taken its name: the Handbook of Texas says Dayton became the post office name in 1877, while the official name stayed West Liberty until the mid-1880s.

What the plaque says

First Methodist Church of Dayton Methodist worship services were conducted in West Liberty, later known as Dayton, as early as 1855. By 1900 the First Methodist Church had a full-time pastor, the Rev. G. T. Newberry, who conducted services in the Dayton schoolhouse on North Main Street. In 1906 the congregation built its first sanctuary. A one-story wooden structure with a bell tower, which continued to serve the members until 1928. A church school also was organized in 1906, and Charles Wilson was elected to serve as the first superintendent. A series of worship and education facilities were constructed to accommodate the growing congregation through the years, including a large two-story brick building with a basement on the northwest corner of Houston Avenue and Cleveland Street in 1928. Due to continued growth, the 1928 structure was razed in 1980, and the congregation built a new sanctuary in 1981. After a denominational merger in 1968, the church's name was changed to first United Methodist Church. throughout the years the congregation has served the community with a variety of worship, educational, social, and missionary programs. (1991)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Sam Houston Regional Library and Research Center — 8.6 mi
  A state archives and museum north of Liberty with an exhibit on Southeast Texas history and a campus of historic buildings, including an 1848 house and an 1898 church.
• San Jacinto Battleground State Historic Site — 23 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.

More markers nearby

• Annie Colbert - Rosenwald School — 0.6 mi
• The Runaway Scrape — 0.7 mi
• The Trinity River — 4.5 mi
• To Generals Lallemand, Antoine Riguad, the veterans of the Napoleonic Wars — 4.5 mi