First Methodist Church of Silverton

The congregation has weathered a hard country. Silverton's history, the Handbook of Texas notes, runs through prairie fires, grasshoppers, dust storms and cyclones, and its worst night came on May 15, 1957, when a tornado killed twenty-one people and did more than $1 million in damage. Good years came too. In 1928 the town became the northern terminus of the Fort Worth and Denver South Plains Railway from Lubbock, natural gas arrived in 1929, and by 1940 Silverton had thirty-five businesses and 684 residents. Its Briscoe County News has published since 1912.

What the plaque says

First Methodist Church of Silverton Organized as a Sunday school in 1891, the First Methodist Church of Silverton has grown along with the community. The first pastor was the Rev. W.B. Ford, who conducted services here once a month while also serving other communities in the area. Early worship services were held in a grocery store, a one-room schoolhouse, and the courthouse until the first sanctuary was completed in 1902. The sancutuary was replaced in 1929 using some materials from the original building. Additions later were made to house the growing congregation. (1991)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Caprock Canyons State Park & Trailway — 15 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.
• Bob Wills Museum — 24 mi
  The old Turkey school, now holding Bob Wills's boots, hats, his father's fiddle and his barbershop tools, in the cotton town that fills each April for Bob Wills Day.

More markers nearby

• Miner Crawford — steps away
• Briscoe County — steps away
• First Baptist Church of Silverton — steps away
• Site of Celtic Post Office — 8.0 mi