VAN ALSTYNE METHODIST CHURCH
HISTORY
HAD BEGINNING OLD MANTUA IN
COUNTY
GUS W. THOMASSON COMPILED IT 31
YEARS AGO WITH ASSISTANCE OF SON AND GRANDSON OF COLLIN McKINNEY--SOME IMPORTANT
FACTS CONCERNING CHURCH DEVELOPMENT DURING NEARLY 90 YEARS.
July 13, 1936
Editor
R. S. (Scott) Fulton is
Chairman of the official Board of the Van Alstyne Methodist Church. He has a
letter written by Gus W. Thomasson, now District Director of the Works Progress
Administration, Dallas, which gives the interesting history of the Van Alstyne
Church. The historical sketch was written by Mr. Thomasson, in 1905, during the
period of his residence in that little city located about sixteen miles north of
McKinney. He was assisted in compiling it by the late Y. S. McKinney and J. D.
L. McKinney.
According to Mr. Thomasson the
old Liberty class was organized in 1847 in a log cabin near a place which was
afterward occupied by the Jim Creagor residence one and three-quarter miles
south of Van Alstyne. The spot the cabin occupied is in a field now owned by G.
W. Kidd and is exactly on the Grayson-Collin line, he said.
There were six charter members of
the class, William Creagor, Mrs. Bertie Creagor, Hiram Carroll McKinney, Patsy
McBride and a sixth member whose name is not positively known but believed to
have been Holcomb or Ornstadt.
***
First Revival.
The class was organized by Joab
Biggs, then in charge of the Dallas Methodist circuit and M. F. Cole, a blind
man well known to Methodists of later years. The class met regularly in the
cabin for nine years.
The first revival in the history
of the class occurred in 1855. A regular quarterly conference had been held and
about te time of its closing, a rain came up and kept the members overnight. The
time was occupied with a sermon and such interest was manifest that Y. S.
McKinney took charge and preached the next night and continue the meeting for
three weeks.
In 1856 it was decided to move
the place of meeting to a new frame building erected at Mantua. The name of the
class was changed to Mount Zion.
***
Railroad Built.
In 1873, the Houston and Texas
Central railroad was built through Grayson county and Van Alstyne was
established. The old Mount Zion class tore down its building at Mantua, then the
second largest town in Collin County, and moved it by sections to Van Alstyne,
selecting a site near the present Van Alstyne cemetery.
In 1893, the old church building
was sold and a new one erected on the present site. With the last move, the name
Mount Zion was dropped and the class became simply the Van Alstyne Methodist
church. In the fall of 1890, the church at Van Alstyne became a station.
Membership of the church in 1905 numbered 404 and the salary for the two years
ending in 1906 was $1,000 per year. Mr. Thomasson said in closing his sketch.
Since the writing of the sketch a
brick church was erected. It was first occupied in the spring of 1917.
***
Camp Meeting.
In the notes used by Mr.
Thomasson is a statement that a camp meeting was held in the early days of the
church at a place within 100 yards of the residence of D. K. Tate, under an old
tree known as the Centennial oak. The term centennial was used with reference to
the celebration of the completion of 100 years of Methodism.
The first district league n the
Southern Methodist church was organized in Van Alstyne in the spring of 1894,
according to the Rev. J. F. Archer, former pastor.
Y. S. McKinney, who aided Mr.
Thomasson in preparing the history in 1905, was a son of Collin McKinney and was
a very old man at that time. J. D. L. McKinney was his son.
J. D. L. McKinney kept a diary
throughout his life in which the names of all pastors of the Van Alstyne church
were recorded.
Churches Index
- Recommended citation:
- "Van Alstyne 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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