A Brief History of Wabbaseka United Methodist Church Wabbaseka, Arkansas

George Mitchell, Pastor

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Soon after the close of the War Between the States, Mr. John Jones came to the area know today as Wabbaseka, Arkansas.  Mr. Jones was from Alabama and he settled on the Wabbaseka Bayou.  Mr. Jones had one child, Lucy, who married her cousin Capt. N.T. Roberts and at her death, Capt. Roberts inherited all the land on which Wabbaseka is now built.

 The first known religious service to be held was a protracted meeting held in the old Furr schoolhouse located about one mile south of the present-day town.  The preacher for the occasion was a bright lawyer named Charles Brinkley who had become a Methodist minister.  Rev. Brinkley resided in nearby DeWitt.  Some time later, another Methodist minister, Dr. Withers held a meeting under a brush arbor near the same school building.   

The congregation of the present day Wabbaseka United Methodist Church was originally formed in 1870 at Flat Bayou, because of the prohibition of building a church within three miles of a community or town that sold whiskey.  The church was officially named Flat Bayou Methodist Episcopal Church, South but was referred to by locals as the Flat Bayou Church.

 The Cotton Belt Railway (presently the Union Pacific Railroad) completed a bridge across the Arkansas River at Rob Roy, Arkansas in June 1883.  That was the beginning of train service through Wabbaseka.  Capt. Roberts and his brother Mr. Charles Roberts had donated a large amount of land to the railroad and they organized a train station in Wabbaseka.  The depot was originally housed in a railroad boxcar.  Because of the railroad, the town began to grow and soon there several cabins and two small stores but no church or school was built until later. 

In 1888 Mr. Isom C. O’Neal built a large frame store building and put in a complete of general merchandise.  Gradually other settlers arrived in Wabbaseka and a need for a church and school became priority.  Capt. Roberts donated an acre of land for a church site and other citizens contributed money.  In the summer of 1891 a small but substantial frame building was erected and a church was organized.  The first minister for whom any records exist was Rev. G.W. Mathews, who was from Virginia.  Services were held once a month in the beginning.  Squire R. J. Watkins organized a Sunday School but it struggled for a while and eventually was closed.

In 1909, Mrs. O’Neal and Miss Willie K. Hocker, designer of the Arkansas State Flag, decided to revive the Sunday School program for the church.  They canvassed the entire town and invited everyone to come.  Many of the invited showed up and the Sunday School was revived with Capt John Weedon being appointed superintendent and Mr. W.H. Townsend, a local business man was elected secretary.  The Sunday School program never again lapsed and is still meeting although the present day membership is considerably smaller.

 In 1925 the present building (Wabbaseka United Methodist Church) was built on the same plot of land in Wabbaseka that was donated by Captain Nathaniel Terry Roberts.  The new church was re-named Wabbaseka M.E. Church, South.  In 1939 The Methodist Protestant Church, The Methodist Episcopal Church and The Methodist Episcopal Church, South merged to form The Methodist Church.   

Wabbaseka M.E. Church, South was party to this merger and became the Wabbaseka Methodist Church until another merger took place in 1968 creating The United Methodist Church of which Wabbaseka Methodist became a member and remains so to this day.  The congregation of the Wabbaseka Untied Methodist Church still meets in that same building erected in 1925.  The cornerstone of the building reads “Wabbaseka M.E. Church, South”. 

The church’s most renowned member was Miss. Willie K. Hocker who was the designer of the state flag for the State of Arkansas.  Miss Hocker lived directly behind the site of the present church and was an active member and Sunday School teacher in the church.  A photograph of Miss Hocker with a brief biography and statement of her accomplishments hangs next to an Arkansas State Flag to greet worshipers as they enter the narthex of the building.

The Wabbaseka UMC church building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places October 4, 2002.

The space for this web site has been provided courtesy of 
The General Board of Global Ministries, The United Methodist Church.
This site is maintained by  George Mitchell

Last Modified 08/19/06