04-23-01

Sunday, April 29, 2001 at 10:00 a.m., the Aubrey United Methodist Church is celebrating Heritage Sunday, as a part of its church program. Heritage Sunday generally occurs during the month of April. Should any of you be interested in receiving more information on Aubrey’s earlier days then, I extend a welcome to you to come be with us during our worship service.

Our pastor, Linwood Roberson, has invited Justin Reeves who is very knowledgeable about the Green Valley community history to be a guest speaker for Heritage Sunday. Justin is sixteen years old and attends high school in Denton.

The Aubrey congregation got off to a good start with the Rev. George Key when it was organized in a log house near Rev. Key’s home. It is said to have had a struggle beginning the first few years because some of the early day pastors had suggested that the church disband and stop trying to hold services. But a few faithful Methodists insisted on the church’s continuation.

It was one hundred and forty-three years ago that the local group got together to form this congregation. This is one of the oldest church organizations in Denton County.

The church got its start in 1858 in a log cabin which had a dirt floor and was also used as one of Denton County’s first free schools.

This Sunday we will be presenting a program about the early day church in Aubrey (then called Onega), and how it was a part of the Dallas First Methodist Church’s ministry that provided the circuit riders that were preachers riding on horse back from church to church leading worship services. The circuit riders would lead the churches in worship on different days of the week, not just on Sunday. Many times it took the circuit riders a full month to make their rounds and then report back to the ministry in Dallas which consisted of only about 200 people.

At about the time that Dallas was struggling along with its small population of 200 people the village of Onega, a Cherokee settlement, was affording a population of more than 200 and was a more attractive village to start a church program than many of the outlying settlements.

Rev. Bates came into the Sandtown area which included a group of the friendly Cherokees and bought a large section of land for farming during the 1850's. The Sandtown area was located where Lincoln Park and the OakGrove Methodist Church are cemetery are now located.

A circuit rider Rev. A.C. McDougal, who came from Tennessee to Texas began his exploration of the possible location of a Methodist congregation in Onega. The six foot four inches tall preacher was a very eloquent speaker and was able to attract a good number of people wherever he sat down to talk.

It is recorded that he was able to attract more Cherokees (after all they were human beings also according to John Wesley’s discovery when he came to America), and evangelizing was his goal in life for all practical reasoning.

Rev. A.C. McDougal was one of the planners and organizers of the building of the second place of worship which was almost a duplicate in architecture and design of the Dallas First Methodist building. The Aubrey church building was the second building and was constructed of lumber where the first was constructed of logs. The lumber for the second building was brought in from Jefferson, Texas in several wagon loads and was ordered by Rev. Bates, a wealthy and influential family man. The lumber was purchased from W.L. Zumwalt who was a local lumberman in Aubrey.

The church was built on land that was donated by L.N. Edwards, who had a strict stipulation that the structure would need to be started within one year or the land would revert back to the donor.

Rev. A.C. McDougal was originally from New York before he moved to Tennessee. He had a brother who was in charge of the Bureau of Indian Affairs which was in Jacksboro, Texas, the district headquarters for all of Fannin County which was almost all of the present day North Texas area. Jacksboro served as a government center before the smaller counties were made into more local governing bodies.

Rev. McDougal was pastor during the early 1890's and was very effective in the church’s growth, as it was nearing 115 regular worshipers. His wife was a very dedicated person in the church and was very active in the community and admired by all. One of her jobs was to autograph and make comments for spiritual growth of all new members that joined the church on the front pages of the three volume set of the History of the Methodist Church and the history included records of the church and its organization while John Wesley was in England and the United States.

She was his survivor when he passed away here in Aubrey. His remains are buried at the Wilson Cemetery which is located just a mile northeast of the Methodist church that he so dearly loved.

Next week I will continue with the history of the Methodist Church in Aubrey and will include a photo of the building lying in ruins when the tornado ripped through town and destroyed it in just a few seconds.

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