First United Methodist Church of Happy

By 1907 the new Happy beside the Santa Fe tracks had a lumber and grain company, a general store, a newspaper called the Happy News, and a post office moved from the old stage stop. A one-room rented house served as the first school, and the First State Bank of Happy was chartered in 1908. Mose Wesley's auto repair shop, built in 1913, was the first brick building. The town incorporated in August 1925, counted 576 people in 1940 with two grain elevators as its skyline, and uses the slogan "the town without a frown."

What the plaque says

First United Methodist Church of Happy Meetings held in early settlers' homes led to the formation of a Methodist fellowship in Happy in 1905. Services were first held in a schoolhouse and then in a small, frame church constructed by carpenter J. F. White. The structure stood on land donated by Tom Gilliland about 4 miles northeast of the present site of Happy. The Methodists shared their building with other congregations, including the Baptists, Christians, and Presbyterians. A Union Sunday School was organized with P. J. Neff as the first superintendent. In 1906, Happy moved to its present location along the Santa Fe line. The Methodist church building was hauled to the new townsite by wagon in 1909. The Rev. B. F. Sharp, a circuit rider, reorganized the 15-member church at its new location. Happy remained on a circuit with 4 other congregations until 1919. The original church building was remodeled in 1920, during the pastorate of the Rev. C. W. McNeely. The present sanctuary was constructed in 1930-31, under the direction of the Rev. H. C. Smith. Two years later, a fire gutted the interior, forcing services to be held in the basement. After repairs, the structure was dedicated on October 18, 1942. Recent renovation occurred in 1974, when the Rev. Carl Oglesby was pastor. (1976)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum — 17 mi
  The Panhandle's great collection, some two million objects behind a 1933 Art Deco hall carved with cattle brands, closed to the public since March 2025 over fire-safety violations.
• TEXAS Outdoor Musical — 17 mi
  A summer pageant of Panhandle settler life staged since 1966 in the Pioneer Amphitheater, built into a basin of Palo Duro Canyon below a 600-foot cliff.
• Lighthouse Trail — 18 mi
  The park's most walked trail, 2.8 miles each way across the canyon floor to the Lighthouse, a hoodoo of Triassic sandstone balanced on a pedestal of softer red shale.
• Palo Duro Canyon State Park — 19 mi
  The upper end of the canyon the state bought in 1933, where CCC crews built the road to the floor and the army burned the winter camps of the Comanche, Kiowa and Cheyenne in 1874.

More markers nearby

• Happy Public Schools — 0.2 mi
• Site of Old Happy — 0.3 mi
• Harman-Toles Elevator — 0.3 mi
• Happy Cemetery — 0.9 mi