Yoakum's Historical Marker

Beginning in 1888, the first meeting place for the congregation was a small two-room school house on the East side of Yoakum, where 10 people of the Methodist faith came together. Yoakum, being a railroad town, people drifted in and out all the time and not many cared what went on in the community. It was diffult to get started, but on the first Sunday in January the first Methodist Church of Yoakum was organized with Rev. T. S. Armstrong as pastor. This meeting was held in the Knights of Pythias Hall. Soon the members had to move and were offered an old rough, unpainted forty by sixty foot ex-saloon building, rent free. Planks for seating were borrowed from the Woodley Lumber Company and placed on top of old beer barrels and a crude table about four feet wide was the pulpit. The pastor's salary was $450.00 a year. At that time there were about twenty places of business and thirteen of these were saloons. The San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railroad had a depot, machine shop and round house here at the time. Early in the spring of 1889 the Baptists built a small church house, and since the Methodists only met once a month, the Baptists allowed them to share in the use of the meeting house. Later in 1889 the Methodists used the Cumberland Presbyterian facilities and it was there that a Sunday School was organized and started to meet. The first church of wood was built in 1893 followed by a brick church which was finished in 1917. A new site on 3.74 acres was acquired and the present building was built in 1972 and the congregation moved in, in 1973.

(from the notes of Mrs. D. F. Sistrunk)

Hope's Historical Marker

German Pioneers founded this church about 1837. The members met in a log hut built on public land. There were 23 members in 1850, and the German language was used in the worship services. In 1855 they were given a 2 acre site by Christoph and Christina Hornburg and a second log house was built, which later burned. The fire destroyed the records, according to an account by "Mister Charlie Munson". For several years they met in different homes, then the rpesent church was built on a newly purchased site in the Hope Community in 1889. By the time of the Civil War, English was the spoken language in the church and the area. Spanish and Mexican rulers forbade any Protestant Churches before 1836. By building in 1837, the German Methodist of Hope built one of the first Protestant Churches in Texas. In 1977, the Texas Historical Commission placed an Official Marker in front of the building. For almost 150 years this church has contributed to the moral and religious life of all who have entered its doors.

Pastor Roster