I have served on many different commissions of which are no longer in existence, and I still find myself digging into a vast collection of names and events. One of the more interesting discoveries happened around 25 years ago, when our daughter, Onor, was planning her wedding at the Methodist church. The front of the church entry had decayed so badly that when it rained, most of the rain came in the entry way. While we cleaning up the waste after temporarily repairing the roof, we discovered that the trash included some old original records that someone had thrown in the trash. I decided that if the old records were not appreciated any more than being thrown in the trash, and if we dug them out and placed them in the church, they would eventually be thrown into the trash again. And if this happened again, I might not be around to salvage them and the loss would be forever.

I do however, refer to these old documents on different occasions and most especially when a question about the period when the church began in 1858, I find my research by going into these old books. I am grateful for these original records that date back to the early days of Onega.

During 1815 when this area belonged to Spain, the first Protestant church was established near the present town of Clarksville, and consisted of a group of organized Methodist Society. The worship services were conducted in privacy in homes and in storm cellars that were a part of the home for safety. During the next fifteen years, the Methodist teachings were prohibited by Spain. In 1833, near San Augustine in Sabine County, the first organized effort of a protestant church was erected and thus Methodism had a foothold in its beginning in Texas. At this time the city of Dallas did not exist, but the immigrants were following Stephen F. Austin’s effort to colonize Texas with citizens from the United States.

Dallas started a church service during 1846 as the area was growing with newly arriving immigrants from the Mississippi Conference. During the first 12 years of the Dallas Church life, there was a growing need for Methodist mission work being requested which caused a need for more dedicated men of the mission field. There were 20 of the itinerant preachers in the Dallas Church during the first few years and the need for mission work in this area was evident due to the large growing area of colonizing immigrants of the Cherokee nation. The Cherokee nation had fallen and was faced with a forced removal to the west of the Mississippi River.

This area was growing with the newly named village of Onega during this period, and the Methodist Society organized and began services held in a log house with a dirt floor during the year of 1858, which was ten years after the church in Dallas began in 1848. The population of Dallas at this time was about 200, and the Dallas Circuit reported 278 members in twelve charges. Onega became a charge in 1858. During 1848, the total membership in the Dallas charge was 12 members. In 1858, there were 17 charter members of the first class that started in the Key School, which was a settlement to the southwest of present day Aubrey, and was about 1 mile from the present day downtown area. I have a list of the charter members of this class.