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Eagle Lake Remembers
On Sunday, August 20, the sun glistened brightly upon the tall, white steeple above the United Methodist Church on Prairie Street in Eagle Lake. It shone brighter than usual that day, as its congregation and the town celebrated Eagle Lake’s 150 years of Methodism, and the first church in Eagle Lake’s history. Church members and friends gathered at the entrance, recalling the stories of the first church, organized in 1872, at the first one-room schoolhouse in Eagle Lake. They continued through a celebration luncheon after church.
Mexican restrictions against Protestantism were gone. The little schoolhouses served not only as classrooms, but were also meeting rooms. In Eagle Lake, the first church meetings were held in the small, oneroom school house.
Eagle Lake’s first church began with the arrival of a Methodist Circuit Rider named Orceneth Fisher, in 1872. His ministry was dangerous and not without hardship. He came with a horse and saddlebags, a bible, sermons, and a songbook and was dependent upon God for protection in rough country with Indians, vagabonds, and primitive conditions.
By 1880, an independent small-frame church building was constructed, and was called the Union Church, located on Post Office Street. The Union Church building served the congregations of the Methodist, Baptist, Episcopal, and Christian Churches.
From the one-room schoolhouse, to the oneroom Union Church, Methodism expanded in Eagle Lake. The Methodist Episcopal South Building on Lake Street became the first larger church building. The Colly Memorial Methodist Church building next to the Masonic Cemetery followed.
The current church building graced by the tall, white steeple on Prairie Street is its current home on the site of the former Eagle Lake High School. The 150 years of Methodism in Eagle Lake have seen many families and generations come and go, with the sounds of music, vacation Bible schools, sermons, weddings, baptisms, funerals, and births. It has been home to many local church-goers. It was my church, too.
May its steeple continue to shine in the next 150 years.
