Lynn Grove United Methodist Church

The plaque names Zachariah Shelton Weaver among the church's founders, and his household started something else here in 1888. That year he married Florence Somerford, a Florida-born beekeeper whose brother Walter gave the couple ten hives as a wedding present, the American Bee Journal reports. Their son Roy, born at Lynn Grove in 1892, took over the bees in 1915 and began moving hives to the blackland cotton fields. In 1926 he and his brother Howard started raising queens. The Handbook of Texas found Weaver descendants still running apiaries at Lynn Grove in 2005.

What the plaque says

Lynn Grove United Methodist Church THIS HISTORIC CHURCH DATES BACK TO THE LATE 1880s. IN 1888, ZACHARIAH SHELTON WEAVER, JOHN LANE SHINE AND CHARLES G. VICKERS, RESIDENTS OF THE COMMUNITY OF LYNN GROVE, FELT THE NEED FOR A PLACE OF WORSHIP FOR THEIR FAMILIES AND OTHERS LIVING IN THE AREA. JAMES H. MULDROW AGREED TO SELL ACREAGE FOR A CHURCH IN 1889. THE FIRST CHURCH SERVICES FOR THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, SOUTH, WERE HELD UNDER A BRUSH ARBOR AND WERE CONDUCTED BY TRAVELING CIRCUIT RIDERS. A SIMPLE WOOD CHURCH BUILDING WAS COMPLETED IN 1893. THE PEWS, LECTERN, COMMUNION TABLE AND ALTAR RAILS WERE CONSTRUCTED BY THE MEMBERS OF THE CHURCH. PASTOR ROBERT W. ADAMS FROM THE COURTNEY-PLANTERSVILLE CIRCUIT GAVE THE FIRST SERMON. THE CHURCH CONTINUED TO PROSPER AS A PLACE OF WORSHIP AND FELLOWSHIP FOR THE COMMUNITY OF FARMERS TO COME TOGETHER. THE ORIGINAL BUILDING WAS USED FOR OVER FIFTY YEARS UNTIL THE DECISION WAS MADE TO BUILD A NEW CHURCH. THE OLD BUILDING WAS DISMANTLED IN 1947 AND THE MATERIALS WERE USED TO BUILD THE NEW STONE AND WOOD CHURCH. DURING CONSTRUCTION, THE CONGREGATION MET AT THE LYNN GROVE SCHOOL. IN 1948, THE BUILDING WAS COMPLETE WITH THE FIRST SERVICES HELD ON MOTHER'S DAY. MANY OF THE ORIGINAL PIECES FROM THE OLD CHURCH ARE STILL USED IN THE SANCTUARY, INCLUDING THE COMMUNION TABLE AND LECTERN. THE NAME OF THE CHURCH CHANGED IN 1939 TO THE METHODIST CHURCH AND IN 1968, IT CHANGED TO LYNN GROVE UNITED METHODIST CHURCH. OVER THE YEARS, THE CHURCH MADE IMPROVEMENTS TO THE BUILDING AND THE CONGREGATION CONTINUED TO HELP EACH OTHER AND THOSE IN NEED. (2013)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Star of the Republic Museum — 7.8 mi
  A star-shaped museum of the Republic of Texas years, 1836 to 1846, built at Washington-on-the-Brazos after a Brenham campaign and opened on March 1, 1970.
• Navasota — 7.9 mi
  A railroad and cotton town where the La Bahia Road crossed the Navasota River, scarred by an 1865 explosion and yellow fever, and the home ground of the songster Mance Lipscomb.
• Washington-on-the-Brazos State Historic Site — 8.0 mi
  The townsite on the Brazos where delegates met in a cold, unfinished hall in March 1836 to declare Texas independent, with Independence Hall rebuilt and Anson Jones's Barrington farm worked as in 1850.
• Fanthorp Inn State Historic Site — 14 mi
  A cedar-log dogtrot cabin of 1834 on the road through Anderson that grew into a seventeen-room inn and post office for travelers of the Republic, kept by one family until 1976.

More markers nearby

• Courtney Cemetery — 2.2 mi
• Jared Ellison Groce — 2.3 mi
• White Hall School — 3.6 mi
• McAlpine Cemetery — 3.9 mi