Methodism in Mason County

Mason County's German settlers were mostly Methodists who at first worshiped in one another's homes. In 1852 the Rev. Charles A. Grote, a traveling minister of the German Methodist Episcopal Church, brought some of the area's first Protestant preaching, and in 1856 he helped organize the county's first Methodist congregation. At Willow Creek, later Art, a log church that doubled as a school went up in 1858 as part of Grote's Llano Charge; a stone church replaced it in 1875. From 1860 to 1900 big camp meetings drew crowds.

What the plaque says

Methodism in Mason County When Mason County organized in 1858, a number of Methodists lived in this area, served by English and German speaking circuit preachers. In the town of Mason, four different conferences (north and south for both English and German) met separately in the community schoolhouse. Together in 1877 they built a sanctuary, which was shared until the membership outgrew the building. Services were also held in the county courthouse before new facilities were built in the 1890s. By 1939, all the conferences had united. Methodists in Mason County have a long history in raising up pastors for ministry, as well as training interns from Southern Methodist University. They have also given extensively to charities, missions, orphanages and hospitals. (2008)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Fort Mason — steps away
  A reconstructed officers' quarters on Post Oak Hill above Mason, standing where the army's stone fort was taken apart by the town that grew up below it.
• Eckert James River Bat Cave Preserve — 14 mi
  A limestone cave on the James River where about four million Mexican free-tailed bats raise their young each summer, kept open to visitors by a family's gift.
• Enchanted Rock State Natural Area — 30 mi
  A dome of pink granite north of Fredericksburg that rises some 385 feet above Sandy Creek, creaks as it cools at night, and has drawn people for thousands of years.

More markers nearby

• Hofmann Dry Goods Company — steps away
• The Commercial Bank — steps away
• Fort Mason and Camp Llano, C.S.A. — steps away
• First Comanche-German Meeting — steps away