First Methodist Church of Turkey

The town around this congregation began as Turkey Roost, for the wild turkey roosts on nearby Turkey Creek, and became Turkey in 1893, when a post office opened in the dugout of Alfred P. Hall, its first postmaster. A newspaper, the Turkey Gobbler, started in 1919, and the town incorporated in 1926. In February 1928 a fire destroyed most of the business district, and that November residents celebrated the arrival of the first Fort Worth and Denver locomotive. By 1929 Turkey had two banks and about 1,000 residents.

What the plaque says

First Methodist Church of Turkey The Rev. J. D. Terry and seven charter members organized the Elizabeth Methodist Episcopal Church, South, on September 8, 1891, at the home of W. M. & Elizabeth Cooper. Worship services were held in homes and in the nearby Wolf Flat Community Schoolhouse until 1907. In that year a frame sanctuary and parsonage were completed. After a 1928 tornado destroyed the church building, the members built a basement structure and worshiped there until 1948, when an above-ground addition was completed. The church continues to serve the community. (1991)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Bob Wills Museum — 0.2 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.
• Caprock Canyons State Park & Trailway — 9.3 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

• Bankhead Highway in Turkey — 0.2 mi
• Gasoline Cotton Gin — 7.8 mi
• The Ozark Trail at Tampico — 8.5 mi
• Lake Theo Folsom Bison Kill Site — 10 mi