First Methodist Church of Overton

Overton was laid out in 1873 at a planned junction of two railroad lines, and the Handbook of Texas says the railroad's bypass of Rocky Mount, Belleview and Jamestown sent residents of those towns to the new line. Overton's founder offered free lots to any Jamestown businessman who would move, and many did. That is the background to the Jamestown church members who joined this congregation. The first post office opened in 1873 with James B. Harper as postmaster, a Baptist church followed in 1875, and Hubbard College was founded in 1876.

What the plaque says

First Methodist Church of Overton This church dates to 1873 when many members of the nearby Jamestown church became pioneer members of this congregation. A small frame building was built that year on this site with lumber hauled by wagon. A new sanctuary was built here in 1932, and a two-story education building was added in 1937. As membership grew a new church was completed here in 1969, using the stained glass windows from the previous structure. The church sponsors traditional programs for the congregation, and continues to serve the community as it has for more than 120 years.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• New London Museum and Cenotaph — 3.1 mi
  A volunteer-run museum beside the pink granite cenotaph for the March 1937 school gas explosion, holding a model of the school, a blackboard from that day and an odorizer device.
• East Texas Oil Museum — 9.4 mi
  A Kilgore College museum that rebuilds the 1930s oil boom in a full-scale Boomtown with a general store, drugstore and newspaper office, plus dioramas, films and antiques given by East Texans.
• Camp Ford Historic Park — 19 mi
  A free county park north of Tyler on the site of the largest Confederate prison camp west of the Mississippi, with a kiosk, an interpretive trail and a historical society museum downtown.
• Goodman-LeGrand House and Museum — 20 mi
  A Tyler house begun in 1859 as four rooms, enlarged by the Goodman family over 73 years, and left to the city in 1939 with its furnishings, in a garden that fills a city block.

More markers nearby

• New London School Explosion — 3.1 mi
• Sartain Homestead — 5.3 mi
• Lou Della Crim No. 1 — 6.2 mi
• Pleasant Hill Missionary Baptist Church — 6.7 mi