Pearl Methodist Church

Pearl's early settlers included G. Dallas Edmondson and his brothers J. Polk and Sam, who arrived in 1871, according to the Handbook of Texas. The town once had a steam-powered cotton gin, a flour mill and a gristmill. In 1908 telephones came by what residents called the Price System: people bought their own boxes, wire and posts, then strung and kept up their own lines, and the average monthly bill was forty cents. The Handbook also dates the Methodist church to 1854, earlier than the 1875 gathering the plaque describes.

What the plaque says

Pearl Methodist Church A group of Methodists gathered in the home of the Rev. John Wesley Shook (1846-1921) in the winter of 1875-76 to organize a congregation. Early worship services were held in the Hope schoolhouse. In 1890 landowner Charley Karnes (1854-1933) gave the Methodist church three acres of land on which to build a sanctuary. By 1892 a Sunday School was in operation, and in 1900 a parsonage was built near the church. The existing sanctuary was erected about 1919-1920, and the parsonage was sold in 1953. Serving the people of a large area, the size of the church's membership varied over the years. As the population of surrounding communities began to grow, members of Pearl Methodist Church withdrew to help organize new congregations. In October 1975 the church celebrated its centennial with a special program involving descendants of J. W. Shook and other early members. Four years later, in March 1979, the congregation voted to disband and the church was officially discontinued by the Methodist denomination. The church property was given to the Pearl Cemetery Association in 1985. Pearl Methodist Church stands as a reminder of the area's early heritage. (1988)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Hamilton County Courthouse — 21 mi
  A limestone courthouse of 1886-87 on the Hamilton square, built after the county's 1878 courthouse burned, enlarged in the early 1930s and rededicated in 2012 after restoration.
• Hancock Springs Park — 26 mi
  Lampasas's city park on Sulphur Creek, with a spring-fed swimming pool that holds about 69 degrees all year, the walls of the old bathhouse and a golf course.

More markers nearby

• Pearl Baptist Church — steps away
• Pearl School — 0.5 mi
• Purmela Baptist Church — 6.5 mi
• King Baptist Church — 7.6 mi