The Rev. John Wesley DeVilbiss

DeVilbiss came to preaching from a saddler's bench. Born in Graceham, Maryland, on August 18, 1818, he was converted at a Methodist camp meeting in Ohio in 1833 while learning the trade, and Littleton Fowler recruited him for Texas in 1842. On the Gonzales circuit he organized a congregation at Seguin. Assigned to San Antonio in 1846, he bought a lot and a bell for a church on Villita Street, and the city became the center of a new Methodist district in 1848. In 1880 he retired to his Palo Blanco ranch.

What the plaque says

The Rev. John Wesley DeVilbiss Circuit Rider DeVilbiss came to republic to Texas in 1842 to minister on Hispanic Borders in the southwest. He pioneered among immigrants and native Texians to promote Harmony in varies cultures in this far outpost. In county clerk's office in April 1844 he delivered first sermon in English ever give in San Antonio--to lay foundations for confluence of civilizations. Inspired organization of Oak Island Church, 1867 or '68. This building of 1872 holds furniture mande by Devilbis and his son. (1967)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Mission Espada and the Espada Aqueduct — 9.1 mi
  The southernmost San Antonio mission and the oldest Spanish aqueduct in the United States, still carrying river water over Sixmile Creek to the fields after nearly three centuries.
• Mission San Juan — 9.6 mi
  The mission near the river bend where the San Antonio got its name in 1691, with an unfinished church foundation and farm fields still watered by an eighteenth-century acequia.
• San Antonio Missions National Historical Park — 10 mi
  Four working parish churches on the Mission Trail south of downtown, with the visitor center at Mission San Jose, the Queen of the Missions, and the descendants who still worship there.
• Mission Concepción — 12 mi
  A stone church dedicated in 1755 that has never fallen into ruin, its convento ceilings still painted, and the ground where the Texas Revolution's fight for San Antonio began.

More markers nearby

• Oak Island Methodist Church and Cemetery — steps away
• Ruiz-Herrera Cemetery — 4.1 mi
• Rambie-Lewis Family Cemetery — 5.5 mi
• Spanish and Mexican Land Grants — 5.6 mi