First Methodist Church of Lockney

The church shared its early town with a college. Two Church of Christ evangelists, Charles Walker Smith and St. Clair W. Smith, opened Lockney Christian College on October 2, 1894, in a frame building twenty-four by forty-eight feet, with sixteen students. Under George Henry Pryor Showalter, president from 1897, it specialized in elementary teaching and reached 425 students in 1899, adding a stone building in 1908. William F. Ledlow later raised it to rank with the best junior colleges in Texas, but it closed in 1918.

What the plaque says

First Methodist Church of Lockney This church traces its history to 1890, when The Rev. R. M. Morris led about twenty-five Methodists in organizing a new congregation. The church members met for worship in the local schoolhouse and under arbors until a frame sanctuary was completed in 1908. A larger brick building replaced the first church structure in 1920. To serve the growing membership, the congregation built a new facility in the 1950s. In addition to worship and educational programs, the church has been involved in community activities and worldwide missionary endeavors. (1990)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Caprock Canyons State Park & Trailway — 30 mi
  Red canyons below the Caprock escarpment where the Texas State Bison Herd, descended from calves Mary Ann Goodnight saved in 1878, has right of way on the park roads.

More markers nearby

• First Baptist Church of Lockney — steps away
• The J. A. Baker Store — steps away
• John Ellison Burns — 0.2 mi
• Della Plain — 7.8 mi