Prairie View United Methodist Church

The church's name is the old name of its neighborhood. The Handbook of Texas says Nogalus Prairie was first called Prairie View, settled in the 1850s by planters from Georgia and Alabama, and that a post office opened in 1858 as Nogallis Prairie. Local lore holds that the name began as Nogallows, after two horse thieves were hanged from a large tree. From about 1900 to 1918 the community had a Methodist church, several stores, a cotton gin, a saw and grist mill and a Woodmen of the World hall.

What the plaque says

Prairie View United Methodist Church Prairie View United Methodist Church Early members of the Prairie View United Methodist Church of the Nogalus Prairie area began holding services at this site in the early 1880s. Richard Willborn built their first sanctuary in 1883 on land owned by Thomas A. Nelms. He sold the land in 1887, but reserved two acres for the church. Local Baptists also used the site; the two congregations built brush arbors for revivals, held baptisms in nearby creeks and ponds, and had Sunday lunches at tables under pine trees. In 1912, church members donated cows to sell for lumber, which they used for a new building. The congregation built its current church in 1956. It remains a center for the community. (2002)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Caddo Mounds State Historic Site — 24 mi
  Three earthen mounds of an ancestral Caddo village and ceremonial center on the old El Camino Real, settled about A.D. 800 and still sacred to Caddo people, with a grass house and visitor center.

More markers nearby

• Calvary Cemetery — 1.2 mi
• Moore Cemetery — 2.7 mi
• Aaron Lowery — 3.2 mi
• Antioch Cemetery — 8.4 mi