First United Methodist Church of Crawford

The church's name changed because Methodism reunited. The Handbook of Texas says three major branches accepted a plan of union in 1939, forming the Methodist Church with 475,021 Texas members. In 1968 the Evangelical United Brethren joined it to form the United Methodist Church. The uniting conference, held in Dallas, called for ending the segregated central jurisdiction, and by 1970 all Black members in Texas had been placed in the five geographic annual conferences. The plaque says only that mergers changed the church's name several times.

What the plaque says

First United Methodist Church of Crawford As early as the 1840s, area families met in their homes for prayer and hymns. In 1874, the Crawford School was established, and a one-room building was constructed. Around 1878, the First Methodist Church was organized and met in the schoolhouse. In 1880, Reverend Sam Franks ministered to the Crawford area. In November 1880, Bishop George Pierce appointed Rev. Franks to the Bosqueville Circuit for the second year. With this appointment, the Methodist Episcopal Church, south of Crawford was officially organized. In 1881, when the railroad came to the area, the city of Crawford moved southwest. Subsequently, the school building and church moved along with the town. The church continued to worship there until the school burned. A tabernacle then served as their home for sermons and baptisms. In 1882, a two-story building was constructed on a different site and was shared by several groups, including the Methodist Church and Masonic Lodge. Two years later, the church built their first church home, assisted by members of the community. The building was eventually razed and the congregation constructed a new sanctuary, remodeling and renovating the campus as membership grew. Mergers by the Methodist General Conference changed the name of the church several times. In 1968, the First United Methodist Church of Crawford was documented by the conference. Through events, service projects, youth activities and outreach programs, the First United Methodist Church has served the Crawford area for more than a century. The church name and campus have changed over the years but the congregation's commitment to service and the community remains. (2017)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Mother Neff State Park — 14 mi
  A Leon River park that grew from six acres Isabella Neff left the state in her 1921 will, where Civilian Conservation Corps Company 817 built a stone tower, a pavilion and roads in the 1930s.
• Waco Mammoth National Monument — 17 mi
  A bone bed on the Bosque River where a nursery herd of at least 19 Columbian mammoths was trapped and drowned by floodwater 65,000 to 72,000 years ago, left in place under a dig shelter.
• Dr Pepper Museum — 19 mi
  The 1906 bottling plant of the Artesian Manufacturing and Bottling Company, built where Dr Pepper outgrew a Waco drugstore soda fountain, now the Dr Pepper Museum.
• Bosque Museum — 19 mi
  A Clifton museum holding what it calls the largest repository of Norwegian artifacts in the South and Southwest, with Bosque County finds some 10,000 years old and a log cabin built by the Olson family.

More markers nearby

• First Baptist Church of Crawford — steps away
• Crawford — steps away
• St. Paul Lutheran Church — 0.3 mi
• Crawford Schools — 0.3 mi