Rehobeth United Methodist Church

The Panola County TXGenWeb church history traces Methodist preaching here to the Old Camp Ground, where N. S. Johnson began as pastor in 1848. Rehobeth belonged to the Beckville Circuit from 1878 to 1954. The original trustees were Emanuel Smith, John Chadwick and John W. Biggs, and a schoolhouse already stood near the cemetery gate. Members built the church in spring 1878, and the Rev. J. M. Mills held a revival that summer, before the steps were finished. The church was rededicated on February 20, 1949, and Conrad Winborn became its first full-time pastor in June 1957.

What the plaque says

Rehobeth United Methodist Church The Rev. J. M. Mills conducted the first services for this church in 1878. That same year work began on a sanctuary at this site. The land, which included a schoolhouse near the cemetery entrance, was deeded to the congregation by John Wesley Biggs and his wife Mary Ann. Built by members, the structure served the congregation until it was destroyed by fire on Feb. 22, 1978. A new sanctuary was completed here the following year. Interior furnishings include a cross carved from foundation logs of the first church building. (1981)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Tex Ritter Museum and Texas Country Music Hall of Fame — 4.0 mi
  Carthage's country music museum, with Tex Ritter's boots, guitars and saddles in a room styled like a movie theater, and exhibits on other Texas stars, Jim Reeves among them.
• Starr Family Home State Historic Site — 23 mi
  Maplecroft, the 1871 Greek Revival house Frank Starr built in Marshall, with Ruth Starr Blake's glass and china, an 1880s kitchen restored in 2019 and a retirement home built for a formerly enslaved person.
• Harrison County Historical Museum — 23 mi
  Galleries in Marshall's 1901 courthouse that run from the Caddo to the present, with Wiley College, Lady Bird Johnson's inaugural gown and a military gallery across the square in Memorial City Hall.
• Texas and Pacific Railway Depot and Museum — 23 mi
  The only surviving building of the Texas and Pacific shops at Marshall, a 1912 Mission Revival depot saved from demolition in the 1990s, still an Amtrak stop, with a railway museum and a Mikado locomotive.

More markers nearby

• Mount Zion C. M. E. Church — 3.9 mi
• Carthage Book Club — 4.0 mi
• The Panola Watchman — 4.0 mi
• Jonathan Anderson — 4.1 mi