Introduction
In the Beginning
The Beginning of Methodism
The First Methodist Church Building: 1883-1895
The Second Methodist Church Building: 1895-1917
The Third Methodist Church Building 1917-1964
The Fourth Methodist Church Building: 1964 to the Present
The Addition of Heritage Hall
The Church Renovation Project: 1999-2000
The Church Bell
The Time Capsule
Little Children's Daycare
Sunday School Superintendents
In Closing
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The area now known as DeLeon, Texas, was once considered uninhabitable due to Indians who freely roamed throughout Texas. The Spanish explorer Alonzo de Leon, Jr., made five expeditions into Texas between 1667 and 1690, securing Texas from the earlier French explorers. He charted a river which begins in Eastland County, and flows eastward 185 miles through Comanche and Coryell counties before joining the Salado and Lampasas rivers to form the Little River. The river, which he first named "Arroyo de Leon" in 1669, is today called the San Antonio River. It was in 1721 that the Aguayo Expedition officially named the river "Leon," honoring Alonzo de Leon.
Next,Texas was annexed to the United States of America on Dec. 29, 1846, and Comanche County was created by the Texas Legislature in 1856.
Settlers began slowly arriving in the northern part of Comanche County. Land could now be bought from the State now that the territory had been charted. Previously, Mexican land grants had been obtained from the Mexican government.
In the years following the Civil War (1865) there was an acceleration of movement westward from Mississippi and Alabama as well as from other southern states. They came in wagons pulled by oxen, mules, and horses.
Though Indians remained a problem into the 1870s, they had mostly disappeared from the area by the end of that decade.
It was during these pioneer years that some of the widely scattered families of this section gathered together and built a log school house on Austin Branch near the old cemetery, one mile east of the present site of DeLeon near the Peach & Melon Festival grounds.
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