First United Methodist Church of DeKalb

The plaque names the Rev. John B. Denton as the church's pastor in 1837. The Handbook of Texas entry on him does not mention DeKalb, but it traces the preacher. Born in Tennessee on July 28, 1806, and orphaned at eight, he joined the Methodists in 1825 and rode circuits in Arkansas and Missouri for about ten years. He crossed the Red River with Littleton Fowler in 1836 or early 1837, practiced law in Clarksville, and was killed on May 22, 1841, at Village Creek, in a force that attacked a Keechi village.

What the plaque says

First United Methodist Church of DeKalb The Rev. William Stevenson led the pioneering efforts of Methodist circuit riders in northeast Texas in 1815. He preached on both sides of the Red River, although Protestant services were then illegal in the Spanish territory of Texas. Methodist "societies" began to spring up in this area in the 1820s and 1830s. Dr. J. W. P. McKenzie started a Methodist mission in DeKalb in 1836, just five years after the town was founded. This area was then considered part of Miller County, Arkansas. The Rev. John B. Denton, who served the church in 1837, was later killed in the Village Creek Indian Battle in Tarrant County. The city and county of Denton were named for him. The Methodists' first church building was a log structure which also served as a schoolhouse. It stood in the southeast corner of Old DeKalb Cemetery. After the arrival of the Texas & Pacific Railroad, the church moved to a new building at Fulton and Church St. in 1882. The Presbyterian and Christian churches also shared that facility. A Sunday School program was begun in 1883. The church moved to its present location in 1913 and has occupied three buildings here. Three Methodist congregations, Austin Chapel, Oak Grove, and Springhill, have merged with the fellowship. (1985)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Atlanta State Park — 29 mi
  A shoreline park on Wright Patman Lake, leased from the Army in 1954, where Caddo ancestors farmed the Sulphur River and wagon traces such as the Bobo Ferry trace still cross the woods.

More markers nearby

• De Kalb — 0.2 mi
• New Boston — 12 mi
• Harvey C. Sanders, C. S. A. — 12 mi
• Site of the Texas Home of Richard Ellis — 12 mi