First United Methodist Church of Gilmer

Gilmer's Methodists ran schools. The county's genealogy site says the Masonic lodge opened a female institute in 1851, and when the lodge returned its charter in December 1852 the Methodist church took over and renamed it Gilmer Female Institute. A male academy was chartered in 1854, and in 1856 the Eastern Texas Annual Conference became overseer of Gilmer Female College. Both schools closed by 1857, and Bethesda Lodge bought the building in 1858. G. H. Baird's 1946 county history dates the church to about 1870, later than the plaque.

What the plaque says

First United Methodist Church of Gilmer First United Methodist Church of Gilmer Gilmer's early settlers came in the mid-18th century. By 1849, records indicate Baptist and Methodist congregations shared space at the county's log courthouse for their services. At that time, the Rev. J.B. Tullis, a Methodist circuit rider, was appointed to the Gilmer mission. He and J.L. Camp, Sr., organized a Sunday School for the early Methodist Episcopal Church, South, congregation, which soon received a charter and was officially founded c. 1852. In 1854, the congregation organized a men's academy; two years later, they established a women's academy. These two schools, later administered by the local Masonic lodge, continued until they closed in 1862, during the Civil War. Education remained important in the Gilmer Methodist Church, which supported reading and writing in its Sunday School programs for all ages. The congregation's first two sanctuaries were frame structures. At this site, deeded to the church in 1881, stood the second structure, a white, Gothic revival building. The congregation, with more than 450 members, built a larger brick structure here in 1911. In 1924, church members financed a parsonage, located next to the sanctuary. The church continued to grow, adding an educational building in 1948 and, in 1956, dedicating a new sanctuary. They constructed a new parsonage in 1974 but retained the original home for use by the youth director and youth group. Organizations within the church have included the youth and choir programs, as well as the Women's Home Missionary Society and the Men's Bible Class. Through its mission and outreach, and with expanded facilities, Gilmer's First United Methodist Church continues to serve its community more than 150 years after its first worship services. (2003)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Lake Bob Sandlin State Park — 24 mi
  A 1987 state park on a 9,000-acre reservoir, where a Republic of Texas stockade called Fort Sherman stood in 1838 and the Caddo lived from A.D. 800 to 1860, now with fishing piers, trails and cabins.
• Daingerfield State Park — 25 mi
  A pine-and-hardwood park built in 1935-39 by a white and a Black Civilian Conservation Corps company, with a dammed lake, Bass Lodge and a 2.4-mile loop trail around the water.
• East Texas Oil Museum — 25 mi
  A Kilgore College museum that rebuilds the 1930s oil boom in a full-scale Boomtown with a general store, drugstore and newspaper office, plus dioramas, films and antiques given by East Texans.
• Tyler State Park — 26 mi
  A 985-acre park eight miles north of Tyler, built by the Civilian Conservation Corps from 1935 to 1941 around a 64-acre spring-fed lake, with more than 13 miles of trails.

More markers nearby

• First Baptist Church of Gilmer — steps away
• Croley Funeral Home — steps away
• Site of an Indian Village — steps away
• Upshur County, C. S. A. — 0.2 mi