PLANO METHODIST CHURCH
Historical marker, 1992
FIRST METHODIST CHURCH OF PLANO
ACCORDING TO ORAL HISTORY SOURCES, THIS
CONGREGATION
TRACES ITS HISTORY TO 1846 OR 1847, WHEN
A GROUP OF
THIRTEEN PEOPLE MET TOGETHER IN THE HOME
OF PETERS
COLONISTS JOSEPH AND ELIZABETH RUSSELL
TO ORGANIZE A
METHODIST CHURCH. THE GROUP WAS ASSISTED
BY JAMES A.
SMITH, A LOCAL PREACHER LIVING NEAR
DALLAS. THEY CON-
TINUED TO MEET AT THE RUSSELL HOME UNTIL
THE 1850s,
WHEN THEY MOVED TO A SCHOOL HOUSE ON
UPPER SPRING
CREEK NORTHWEST OF THE ORIGINAL PLANO
TOWNSITE.
PLANO WAS INCORPORATED IN 1873, ONE YEAR
AFTER THE
HOUSTON & TEXAS CENTRAL RAILROAD BUILT A
LINE THROUGH
THE AREA. THE METHODISTS MOVED TO THE
NEW TOWN IN
1874. THE CONGREGATION BECAME A FULL
STATION OF THE
METHODIST CHURCH IN 1888, WITH THE REV.
D. J. MARTIN AS
FIRST FULL-TIME PASTOR. THEY BOUGHT LAND
AT PRESENT
16TH AND K STREETS IN 1894 AND COMPLETED
A NEW
BUILDING IN 1895. IT SERVED THE MEMBERS
UNTIL 1968
WHEN A LARGER FACILITY WAS BUILT AT THIS
SITE.
THROUGHOUT ITS HISTORY, THE FIRST
METHODIST CHURCH OF
PLANO HAS SERVED THE COMMUNITY WITH A
VARIETY OF
WORSHIP, EDUCATIONAL, AND OUTREACH
PROGRAMS. IT MAIN-
TAINS A STRONG RECORD OF SUPPORT TO BOTH
DOMESTIC
AND FOREIGN MISSIONARY ENDEAVORS.
FIRST METHODIST CHURCH
IN COLLIN COUNTY ORGANIZED NEAR PLANO IN SPRING 1846
SAME YEAR THAT THE COUNTY WAS
CREATED --
ALSO SAME YEAR THAT OLD BETHEL
CHURCH WAS ORGANIZED--
SOME INTERESTING INFORMATION
GLEANED BY JUDGE GEORGE P. BROWN
FROM HIS PARENTS AND
GRANDPARENTS
McKinney Daily Courier Gazette, May 28,
1934
Judge
George P. Brown of McKinney attended the recent Homecoming and Eighty-Sixth
anniversary of the organization of the Old Bethel Methodist church, now known as
the Frisco church, on May 6. He was very much interested in the program of the
day. He was born and reared near Plano, not many miles away, of pioneer
Methodist parents. From his parents and grandparents, he learned much concerning
the establishment of the early Methodist churches of this county. He submits the
following comments on the organization of the first Methodist churches of the
county, which have been made pertinent to his mind by the Eighty-Sixth
Anniversary program of the Old Bethel-Frisco church.
***
Oldest Methodist Church in County.
Judge
Brown's article says: "It is a praiseworthy task on the part of the Daily
Courier-Gazette and Weekly Democrat- Gazette to seek to learn and to preserve
local history of any kind. Your report of the Bethel-Frisco Eighty-Sixth
anniversary was of unusual interest to me for the reason that I was already
familiar with much of the history of this church and of the denomination in
Collin county. I received my information along this line directly from my
parents, the late R. H. Brown and wife, and my grandparents, Joseph Russell and
wife, and John D. Brown and wife.
"In
this connection, I desire to add some history that was not contained in your
report, and which really was not necessary to be put in your report. What I am
adding is merely supplemental to the data already in your possession.
"On
December 17, 1845, Joseph Russell and wife and children: Mrs. Mary Stone, a
widow; Miss Isabel Russell, who later became the wife of Rev. JOhn Beverly; Miss
Elizabeth Russell, who later became the wife of Robert H. Brown, and Joseph
Warren Russell and Nancy Russell Brown, wife of Sam P. Brown, all crossed the
Red River at Old Fort Warren in Fannin county.
"There
was another family who came along with Joseph Russell. This family was John D.
Brown and wife and the following children: Sam P. Brown, mentioned above; R. H.
Brown, mentioned above; Sarah Brown, who later became the wife of Rev. William
C. Quigley; Eliza Brown, who later became the wife of Martin Stelzer, and
Elizabeth Brown who later became the wife of James Bell. This group of
immigrants, all came from Independence, Jackson county, Missouri.
"John
D. Brown and his family settled on Honey Creek, about twelve miles northwest of
McKinney, in what is now known as the Cottage Hill-Weston community where they
were friends and neighbors of the pioneer Culwell family, mentioned in your
report of the Bethel-Frisco church anniversary.
"Joseph
Russell settled on Rowlett creek, near the old Indian hole, about three and a
half miles north of Plano.
"My
mother was Elizabeth Russell, mentioned above, who later became the wife of R.
H. Brown. She is a sister of Isabel Russell mentioned above and other members of
the Russell family. Another sister Mrs. F. F. Morrill, who was the mother of
Mrs. S. W. Miller of Frisco and of Mrs. Robert W. Gribble of McKinney. She was
about three or four years of age when the family came to Texas. She was the
daughter of Mary Stone, mentioned above.
"My
father, Robert H. Brown, and his brothers and sisters have always taught me, and
it has been taught to many others, many, many times during the old camp meeting
days on the Culwell camp grounds on Honey Creek ant at Bethel in West Collin,
and White Rock in Dallas county, that the First Methodist church, in Collin
county, was created or organized in the home of Joseph Russell, my grandfather,
in the spring of 1846.
"I do
not recall who organized it. My present recollection is that the original
charter members were: Joseph Russell and wife; their widowed daughter, Mary
Stone; their unmarried daughters, Isabel and Elizabeth Russell; their
son-in-law, Sam P. Brown, and his wife, Nancy Russell Brown, and probably their
son, Joseph Warren Russell, and their little granddaughter, who afterwards
became Mrs. F. F. Morrill, mentioned above.
"Religious services were continued in the home of Joseph Russell until the
building of the schoolhouse on Spring Creek, about 1854 or 1855. The Methodists
then built a church about the year, 1873 o4r 1874, in the southwest part of
Plano, near where the interurban crosses the Cotton Belt railroad. Of course,
that was before the time of the coming of either the Cotton Belt railroad or the
interurban. The building was located northeast of the cemetery , at Plano.
"In
1893, Rev. F. O Miller, then pastor at Plano; J. H. Bowman and George W. Bowman
were trustees of the church and also on the Building Committee when the present
church in Plano was erected. Jim Florence was the contractor who built the first
church in Plano about 1873 and also the present church in 1893. His wife was a
sister of the Bowman brothers.
"Rev.
F. O. Miller, Jack Bowman and George Bowman, trustees, several times visited my
mother, who was still living in Plano, in an endeavor to get her consent to let
them have the old leather-bound hymn book, which her father, Joseph Russell, had
brought with him from Missouri to Texas. This same old leather-back Methodist
hymn book was used at the organization of the first Methodist society in Collin
county in the home of Joseph Russell in the spring of 1846, just shortly before
the organization of Bethel, preaching point on the old Dallas Circuit. My mother
finally consented to let them have the old song book of her father, to place in
the box and seal in the cornerstone of the church at Plano, then being built.
She made the request that should the cornerstone ever be removed that the
songbook would be returned to her son, George P. Brown, who was making his home
at that time with his mother. Rev. F. O. Miller wrote on the flyleaf of the
songbook my mother's request. It may be iconoclasm. Nevertheless, I have offered
to give the Methodist church of Plano $25.00 to tear that old church down, so I
can get my grandfather's old leather-back songbook in my possession once more.
"If
there is any portion of the data furnished above worthy of preservation in
print, you are welcome to it. If any of it may look better in the waste basket
than it would in your newspapers, don't hesitate to consign it there."
"Yours
truly,
George
P. Brown."
"P. S.
In M. Phelan's 'History of Methodism in Texas,' page 259, a record of the
organization of a Methodist society in Collin county in 1846 is mentioned. It
was organized by Rev. John Culwell at the home of A. J. Culwell. If a record
could be found anywhere of the organization of this church in the home of A. J.
Culwell on Honey Creek, now known as the Cottage Hill community, I believe that
the name of my paternal grandfather, John D. Brown and wife, would be found
listed among the charter members. In this same volume, on pages 286 and 287, the
minutes, of the Quarterly Conference, Dallas Circuit, give the names of the
preaching places and among them is the Honey Creek Camp Ground and also
Russell's. I am morally certain that Russell's was none other than Joseph
Russell, my maternal grandfather, and this refers to the organization of the
Plano church, the earliest Methodist society or church to be organized in Collin
county so far as authentic records can determine the matter. -- G. P. B. "
Plano
Churches Index
- Recommended citation:
- "Plano 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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