COTTAGE HILL METHODIST CHURCH
Historical
marker application.
...Reverend John Culwell organized a congregation in the
home of his brother, Andrew Culwell..., located near Honey Creek, east of the
present Pafford Bridge near the present day town of Weston. The Pafford Bridge,
named for a pioneer family, is on County Road 170 north and east of the church
and cemetery. For several years the home of Andrew J. Culwell was a “preaching
place.”....
In the minutes of the Dallas Circuit Quarterly Conference of the Methodist
Church of March 4, 1848 is a listing of a church called Honey Creek Campground
with Samuel Brown as an attendant. (Samuel Brown was a member of the John D.
Brown family who came to the area in 1845 from Missouri. John D. Brown and his
wife helped the Reverend John Culwell organize the church in 1846.) The Second
Quarterly Conference met May 10, 1848; another conference met on October 14,,
1848 and a Fourth Conference met at Honey Creek on September 13, 1851 with A.
Caldwell (Culwell) steward and John Caldwell (Culwell) as Local Preacher. The
Church is listed in the Trinity Conference in 1874, ninth session, meeting in
Plano with John Noble, H. Miller, deacon; R. H. Brown, steward....
In 1859 the Reverend James Marshall, a teacher, a Methodist minister (pastor of
the church there and also a medical doctor) established a school about 500 yards
south of the present day Cottage Hill Church and Cemetery. A school known as
Possum Trot, located about one mile northwest of the present site of Cottage
Hill Church, had been built in 1854. It took its name from the many opossums
which fed on the red and black haws that grew on Haw Branch, a tributary of
Honey Creek. In 1859 six yokes of oxen were used to move the building to land
owned by the Reverend Marshall. Several cottages were built near by and a
boarding school was operated. It was called Marshall College. About 1860 the
community began to be called Cottage Hill, a name suggested by the cottages
around Dr. Marshall’s school.
In 1889 a register of the Cottage Hill Church lists James Marshall having been
pastor in 1859; J. R. Bellamy, 1860; Wm. E. Bates, 1861; Wm. Shaw, 1862; J. L.
Angel, 1863-1864.
F. F. Morrill had married Nancy Jane Stone, stepdaughter of Samuel Brown in 1856
and bought land from Thomas Culwell. Mrs. Morrill is listed as a church member
in 1889, dating from 1854. In 1879 Mr. Morrell deeded land for a church to be
built on the present site. The building was dedicated on the Saturday before the
fifth Sunday in May, 1881. A card dated April 2, 1881 from Brother John Noble at
Pilot Point, Denton County, Texas to F. F. Morrill said to have the church
finished and to publish an appointment for himself (Reverend John Noble) and the
Reverend Tom Sherwood for that date. The Reverend John Noble had lived in the
community and his home had been a “preaching place.” He was a pastor of the
Cottage Hill church in 1869. The church register shows that H. H. Sullivan was
the pastor; Washington Eller, Henry Harrison and Wm. M. Pafford were the church
trustees. Lumber for the building was hauled from McKinney and Sherman.
This building, erected in 1881, served the congregation for sixty-six years...
[The building was renovated in 1946, with additions made to the original
structure.] So the building is new on the outside, but the 1881 building is
still there wearing a new dress....
Cottage Hill
Cottage Hill Cemetery
Churches Index
- Recommended citation:
- "Cottage Hill Methodist Church,
Collin County Churches," Collin County, Texas History and Genealogy Webpage
by Genealogy Friends of Plano Libraries, Inc., <http://www.geocities/genfriendsghl>
[Accessed Fri February 13 13:37:28 US/Central 2004 ].
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