First United Methodist Church of Aransas Pass

The church's Sunday school had a former lieutenant governor at its head. Thomas Benton Wheeler, an Alabama-born Confederate captain, was removed as Travis County attorney as an obstacle to Reconstruction, then served as Austin's mayor from 1872 to 1877 and as lieutenant governor from 1887 to 1891. He bought land on Aransas and Redfish bays in 1889, worked for a harbor at Aransas Pass from 1890 and lived there after 1893. The Handbook of Texas records that he led the town's Methodist Sunday school for twenty-two years. He died in a San Antonio hotel in 1913.

What the plaque says

First United Methodist Church of Aransas Pass Efforts to create a regional shipping center and port in this vicinity began in the middle 19th century. By 1890, plans were well underway to dig a ship channel and develop Aransas Harbor City. Residents of Aransas Harbor (now Aransas Pass) used a structure known as the Dwyer and Drummond Pavilion for meetings and events. On February 22, 1891, seven men and women met there and organized as the First Methodist Episcopal Church, South, under the leadership of the Rev. J.W. Groves. The Rev. J.W. Sims arrived later that year to serve as pastor. Many of the church's early ministers lived in nearby Rockport, serving a congregation there and traveling to Aransas Pass twice monthly for Sunday services. First Methodist Church constructed its first sanctuary in late 1892 on what is now South McCampbell Street and shared it with the local Christian church, the second congregation to organize in the community. Rockport and Aransas Pass Methodists not only shared a pastor in the early years, but also met frequently for picnics and fellowship. Pastors serving the two congregations added an Ingleside charge, but in 1940 the Aransas Pass church established a full-time pastorate during a boom in the city's economy. Over the years, members of First Methodist built new facilities and survived several major storms. Following the devastation of Hurricane Celia in 1970, the church's Education Wing served as the Aransas Emergency Hospital for four months and the Fellowship Hall became a community communications center. Through outreach and service programs, as well as fellowship, worship, education and music, the congregation continues to support and sustain residents of Aransas Pass. (2005)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Port Aransas — 7.0 mi
  The fishing town at the north end of Mustang Island, reached by a free state ferry that crosses the ship channel day and night, with a university marine lab begun in a one-room shack.
• Fulton Mansion State Historic Site — 13 mi
  A French Second Empire house of 1874-77 on Aransas Bay, paid for with hides and tallow, with gas lights, central heat and hot running water no other house nearby had.
• USS Lexington Museum on the Bay — 16 mi
  An Essex-class carrier of 1943 moored off North Beach, the Blue Ghost that Tokyo Rose kept reporting sunk, and the Navy's training carrier for nearly three decades after.
• Texas State Aquarium — 16 mi
  A nonprofit aquarium on the tip of Corpus Christi Beach built around the Gulf and the Caribbean, with the largest coastal wildlife rescue center in Texas behind the exhibits.

More markers nearby

• Great Land Lottery of Aransas Pass — 0.5 mi
• John Wiebel VFW Post 2932 — 0.6 mi
• Terminal Railroad — 0.9 mi
• Late Pleistocene Ingleside Fauna — 3.5 mi