Tarrant County, TXGenWeb

History of the
Oak Grove Methodist Church
(page 3)

For 1935 the Presiding Elder was apportioned and paid $10, while the Preacher in Charge was apportioned $100 and paid $90. The church assumed and paid $33 in funds toward general conference work. The church also sent $1 toward the Superannuate Endowment, $10 for orphanages, $5 for churches and parsonages, $5 for incidentals, and $15 for all other purposes.⁹⁵

In terms of membership, Oak Grove was the second-largest of the five churches in the Euless Charge in 1935; Euless had 175, Colleyville had 12, Oak Grove had 99, Minter's Chapel had 91, and White's Chapel had 64.⁹⁶

Edna Belle Harrington [born 1923] joined the Oak Grove Church about 1935. Like Priest Baze, she was a grandchild of one of the founders, William Burgess Cheek. In 1941 she married Marvin Sparger, a great-grandson of one of the church's original three trustees. She remained a member of the church until it was disbanded in 1949.

Belle remembers a revival held one summer evening in the tabernacle south of the church. The preacher was preaching on the reality of hell and, noticing a man standing outside the tabernacle and smoking during the sermon, he stopped and said to the man: "...It'll be hotter'n that cigarette you're smokin' out there!"⁹⁷

On Thursday, July 18, 1935, The Grapevine Sun noted that "The Methodist Church at Oak Grove held a big dinner on the ground and Brother Riley preached that evening..." In the 1936 conference report Oak Grove reported seven additions by profession of faith, ten by certificate, and one loss through death, for a total membership of 115. In 1936 only three churches were included on the circuit in the Euless Charge...Oak Grove, Euless, and Minter's Chapel. By that year, a new Colleyville Charge had been created, which included Colleyville, White's Chapel, and Dido...a church in far-western Tarrant County many miles removed from the other two.⁹⁸

Jack Mayfield [born 1931] began attending Oak Grove with his mother and sisters about 1937. He recalls that there were only two churches in the area at the time...Oak Grove and the Church of Christ at Bedford. Many non-Methodists in the community went to church at Oak Grove; Mr. Mayfield remembers that his Sunday School teacher at Oak Grove was a Roman Catholic. There were also a number of Baptists who attended services there.

Mr. Mayfield remembers that services were still held at Oak Grove on Sundays when the circuit preacher was at another appointment. Most times either Lee Drue Rutledge or Priest Baze filled in with a devotional service. Bro. Baze's favorite text was Galatians 6:7: "Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." Bro. Rutledge often led the singing. His daughter, Doris, sometimes visited and played the piano, and on those days the singing was especially good. The members had made burlap (tow-sack) curtains which could be moved on wire hangers inside the church, creating about six different "Sunday School rooms."

By the late 1920's, Oak Grove's members had erected a permanent tabernacle south of the church house. It was open on three sides, and the shingled roof was supported by long cedar posts. It had a solid wall along the south side, and the preacher stood on a raised platform about four inches high. There was even a piano under the tabernacle and it was kept covered with a tarp when not in use. Worshippers sat facing south on homemade wooden benches. The tabernacle had a dirt floor. Mr. Mayfield remembers that the single outhouse stood west of the church house near the west fence. It was usually filled with spiders and bugs, he recalled.

Mr. Mayfield also remembers that sometimes John "Tick" Baze, one of Priest Baze's sons, would bring a visitor from Grapevine named Butch Tillery with him. He always wound up having to "wrassle" Butch Tillery and always got in trouble for getting his clothes dirty.⁹⁹

At the end of 1937 Oak Grove remained as one of the three churches in the Euless charge and reported a membership of 133. By the end of 1938 Oak Grove had been moved from the Euless circuit and placed in the Colleyville circuit, which included Oak Grove, Colleyville, White's Chapel, and Minter's Chapel. The circuit remained thus until Oak Grove's end in 1949.¹⁰⁰

In 1938 Oak Grove reported a total membership of 132, including seven professions of faith and one addition by certificate during the preceding year. Six infants and one adult were baptized.¹⁰¹

Dorothy Ann (Fowler) Morrison [b. 1928] of Bedford attended church at Oak Grove until about 1939. She remembers a Sunday School teacher named Sydneyanna (Carter) Wilkerson, who was also a teacher at the nearby Bedford School. Mrs. Morrison also recalls going to revival meetings held in the late 1930's and the watermelon suppers which followed at the end of some evenings. She remembered that the meeting house faced south and had a small raised porch built in front of the door. There were wooden railings on both (east and west) sides of the porch.

During one revival meeting the preacher habitually stomped on the wooden platform on which he was standing under the tabernacle. During the sermon after one particularly good stomp, a large copperhead snake quit the shelter of the platform and fled straight down the aisle through the congregation. The people sitting on the benches scattered, some of them running outside and others of them climbing atop the benches to get as far above the ground as possible. Dorothy Ann's father, W. E. "Bud" Fowler, was wearing a heavy pair of boots, and he stomped the snake to death.¹⁰²

Hubert H. Barnett, Sr., served Oak Grove and the circuit in 1938 and 1939. He later moved to Georgetown, Texas where he worked after retirement with St. John's Methodist Church. He lived to an advanced age.¹⁰³

In the 1939 Conference Report, Oak Grove reported twelve additions on profession of faith and two removals by death. Its total membership for that year was 142.¹⁰⁴
 

VII. Oak Grove in Its Last Decade

Arthur B. Armstrong served as Oak Grove's minister from 1939 into 1943. He lived in the parsonage beside the Colleyville Church.¹⁰⁵ At the end of 1940 Oak Grove reported to the Central Texas Conference that it had baptised two infants and seven others during the past year, and had an active membership of 60. At the time it was the largest church on the circuit, with Minter's Chapel reporting 53, and White's Chapel and Colleyville reporting 27 each.¹⁰⁶

At the end of 1941 Oak Grove reported a membership of 64, and in 1942 it reported 40 members. For both years it remained the largest of the four churches on the circuit.¹⁰⁷

Hazel (Velte) Bowden [b.1926] was an active member of the church until her marriage in 1943. Her parents, Mr. and Mrs. C. Oscar Daniel, and her sisters were staunch members as well. After living with her new husband at Camp Hood at Gatesville, Texas, Hazel returned to this area and lived with her parents in the spring of 1946 while Mr. Bowden was overseas in the service. During that time she again attended Oak Grove and recalled some of the members at the time: Priest Baze and his family, Roy Cook and his family, a Mr. Whitaker who lived around the corner from the church, the English family, several members of the Rutledge and Sparger families, Jack Mayfield's family, and the family of Dorothy Ann (Fowler) Morrison.¹⁰⁸

By the end of 1943 membership in all three of the circuit's churches began to drop, and Colleyville had become the largest congregation with 32 members. Both Oak Grove and Minter's Chapel had 30, and White's Chapel had 28.¹⁰⁹

Ervin Gathings served the four-church circuit beginning in November of 1943 and going into November of 1944. At the time, he was a student at Perkins School of Theology. He and his wife lived in the parsonage at Colleyville. Oak Grove and Colleyville had about twenty active members each at the time; Minter's Chapel had the largest church with about sixty members.

Bro. Gathings's first appointment after he took over the circuit was at the Oak Grove Church. The circuit parsonage was at the Colleyville Church and Bro. Armstrong, who was his predecessor, had taken all the furniture with him when he left. Armstrong even took out the butane system and packed it off, too.

Bro. Gathings remembers an older gentlemen there who was a licensed exhorter, a certified lay speaker. He chewed tobacco, and once thoughtfully spat and told Bro. Gathings that he had just as much authority as the preacher had. Mr. Gathings told him if that were true, he felt sorry for him. The exhorter was Bro. Lee Drue Rutledge [1876-1965], whose wife was a granddaughter of Harvey R. Sparger.

When Bro. Gathings told Mr. Rutledge his plight...no furniture and no heat...the two men went to the other churches and called a meeting for the following Wednesday evening. Several area members not only came to the meeting but brought furniture with them, including an iron bedstead and cane-backed chairs. They found and purchased a five-burner coal oil stove, which was the only heat and cooking stove the parsonage had. The Gathingses finally moved in about Thanksgiving. Even though he had grown up using kerosene, Mr. Gathings managed to soot up the house one morning when he jumped out of bed, lit the stove, and then jumped back into bed to wait until the house was warm.

The well at the parsonage was dry, and the Gathingses had to carry water in milk cans from a nearby well during the entire year they lived there. One of the members gave them an old hen with some chicks. They did not have a fenced lot, but turned the chickens loose behind the Colleyville church where they flourished on grasshoppers and bugs.

During the summer revival in 1943 the preaching was done by Gilbert Ferrell, also a Perkins Theology student. Bro. Gathings led the singing. It was a successful revival with men's prayer groups meeting outside under the trees. When the revival produced about twenty additions, the two men felt very proud...until someone told them that most of the additions were Fort Worth relatives of the regular members who came out and joined the church nearly every summer at revival time.

The church was heated with a large wood stove. On cold mornings a member who lived nearby got to church early and built a fire. Bro. Gathings always came early himself, just to be sure there'd be a fire. Sometimes he had to build it himself. In the coldest weather the members might have their meeting standing around the stove.¹¹⁰

On April 18, 1944 at the Oak Grove Church, Mr. Gathings preached the funeral of one of the last founding members, Mrs. Margaret (Sparger) Rogers. After the 2 p.m. service her body was taken to Smithfield for burial beside her husband and near her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Harvey Sparger.¹¹¹

At the end of 1944 all four of the circuit's churches had functioning Sunday Schools, with Oak Grove's average attendance at 27, Minter's Chapel's at 41, White's Chapel's at 33, and Colleyville's at 20.¹¹²

This compiler's mother, Doris Jo (Simmons) Patterson [born 1931], attended revivals under the tabernacle during the summers with her parents and Grandmother Cavender. She especially remembers that the dirt roads around the church were dusty and "rubboard" rough. Her parents would usually stop and let the cars in front of them get some distance away before they followed, because of all the dust which was being stirred up.¹¹³

After Ervin Gathings's tenure the church was served by Stanley Vodicka (1944-1945). By the end of 1945 the four churches were fairly consistent in size, with Colleyville having 38, Minter's Chapel having 45, Oak Grove having 44, and White's Chapel having 31.¹¹⁴

Wilford M. Provo (1945-1946) followed Bro. Vodicka for a short time as minister of the circuit. By the end of 1946 the churches' memberships stood at Colleyville (43), Minter's Chapel (50), Oak Grove (44), and White's Chapel (36). All four had functioning Sunday Schools. Minter's Chapel's was especially thriving with 105 members.¹¹⁵

George Matthews began his service at Oak Grove in 1946 and was still at his post as late as August 15, 1947. Bro. Matthews, now a resident of Salado, Texas, has many interesting memories of his time on the circuit. When he arrived to begin his first preaching assignment the circuit was without a preacher.

The Matthews family also lived in the parsonage at Colleyville. He remembers that it had been hastily built of green lumber and that it was easy to see the ground beneath it through the cracks in the floor. This made for some very cold nights. On one of them Mrs. Matthews determined to write her mother a letter about their uncomfortable living conditions. The letter had to wait, though, because their ink was frozen. During the last six months of their time there they got a propane system installed. The older butane system would sometimes freeze up and be useless.

Bro. Matthews also remembers Bro. Rutledge and his exhortations. He recalls one sermon in which Bro. Rutledge blamed much of the spiritual weakness of the day on too much bathing.

During Mr. Matthews's time, as earlier, the first person who arrived at church during cold weather was supposed to build a fire in the large stove which stood near the pulpit at the north end of the church. Sometimes members who were short on firewood at home took a little with them to tide them over until they could get some more cut. As time passed, it became harder and harder to find kindling around the outside of the church, especially during wet spells.

Mr. Matthews remembers that attendance at Sunday morning worship services usually ran in the area of ten to twenty-five. During his term, Mrs. Hubbard was the Sunday School Superintendent. There was no running water at the church, but it did have electricity.

During the 1940's the individual churches got very close supervision from the Presiding Elders (now District Superintendents) who also served as evangelists to the churches. The Elder sometimes held revivals at smaller churches as many as four times each year. In addition, he served as a mentor for student pastors. Bro. Matthews remembers that Oak Grove's circuit was greatly enriched by its student pastors.

During George Matthews's time at Oak Grove they held Fifth Sunday convention-style singings, in which they sang for four or five hours, then had dinner-on-the-ground. He remembers that Bro. Rutledge's daughter, Mrs. Ryan, had a strong alto voice. The church had a piano during those years, and Mrs. Matthews sometimes played it for services. Singing groups sometimes came to the singings, and brought their own piano players.¹¹⁶ Mrs. Matthews worked as a teacher at nearby Pleasant Run School. This compiler's mother remembers Mrs. Matthews as an excellent, popular teacher.

In an effort to attract new members the Oak Grove Church began to run a small advertisement in each issue of The Grapevine Sun, beginning on May 9, 1947. It appeared each week, without interruption, through February 25, 1949, after which no further mention of the church has been located in that newspaper. During those months the church held a preaching service on the second Sunday morning of each month. A song service was held each Sunday evening at 7:30.

By August 22, 1947, Paul Robbins was the church's minister. He was a bachelor when he began his work, and later married Marguerite Depue from the White's Chapel Community.¹¹⁷ By the end of 1947, all four of the churches on the circuit were still operating Sunday Schools, but Oak Grove's was in a decline, with an average attendance of only 25. In that same year Minter's Chapel had an average of 43, White's Chapel had 29, and Colleyville had 45.¹¹⁸

The last yearly Oak Grove Homecoming was held on October 10, 1948. A basket lunch was held after the morning church service.¹¹⁹

When the Central Texas Conference report for 1948 was printed, it reflected an active membership at Oak Grove of only 34, behind Colleyville's 36, White's Chapel's 44, and Minter's Chapel's 60. Oak Grove reported only one addition during the past year...it by certificate...no baptisms, and one loss by death of one member.¹²⁰ Paul Robbins was still serving on January 21, 1949.¹²¹

By January 28, 1949, Andrew Don Roberts was pastor of the church, and he continued in that post until the church disbanded and most of its members affiliated with the Colleyville Methodist Church. Mr. Roberts continued a Colleyville's minister until some time in 1950.¹²²

By early 1949 the Oak Grove members were advised by the conference leadership that they should consider disbanding the church because its membership had fallen to such a low point that it could no longer financially support itself and its part of the Methodist work. By that time there were only about eight adult members and some children: Marvin and Belle Sparger and their daughters, Joan and Anna; Cletis and Sarah Sparger and their children, Sam and Martha; Annie (Rutledge) Ryan and her brother; and Bill and Marie (Couch) Hendrix.

Sadly and with much deliberation, the group voted to disband. Most of them began attending the Colleyville Church within two or three weeks.¹²³

The weekly ads in The Grapevine Sun for Oak Grove Methodist Church are present through Friday, February 25, 1949. This compiler read all the issues of the Evening Edition of The Fort Worth Star-Telegram for the entire month of March, 1949 without finding any mention of the Oak Grove Church. A search of all the weekly issues of the Arlington newspaper for the months of February and March, and for the first week of April, yielded the same result. Neither have any articles about the church's demise been found in the Grapevine newspaper.

Oak Grove Methodist Church made its last report to the 1949 conference. It reported thirteen baptisms for the past year, a total full active membership of 60, and an inactive membership of 38. It operated one church school with four officers and a total scholarship of 34, with an average attendance each Sunday of 20.¹²⁴

On September 20, 1949, the Oak Grove trustees met and passed the following resolution:

On September 28, 1949, the trustees executed a warranty deed for the two acres to Julian Ivy Rogers, the grandson of one of the original trustees, H. R. Sparger. Of the four Oak Grove trustees who signed the deed as grantors, two...John Richard Couch and his brother, Lloyd Couch, were also H. R. Sparger's grandsons. Mrs. W. A. Bonds, Secretary-Treasurer of the church, certified that

the trustees had met and that it was their decision to sell the land. Rogers paid a total of $600 for the tract; this was exactly twenty times the purchase of sixty-three years earlier.¹²⁶

About one year after the church disbanded, probably in 1950, the second Oak Grove Church house, which had been hastily completed in 1925, was moved about 2.2 road miles and placed a few yards east of the Colleyville Methodist Church building. Belle Sparger remembers seeing the moving truck drive north past her house carrying the old church building.¹²⁷ A small addition was built to connect them. The Oak Grove and Colleyville buildings were about the same size and both faced south at the Colleyville location.¹²⁸ This composite building, with the east-west connecting addition, was used by the Colleyville membership until the property was sold and a new building was completed in 1961 in Colleyville along Pleasant Run Road, in the northeast corner of its intersection with Church Drive.

The disbanding of the Oak Grove Church and its membership's absorption into the Colleyville Church were not accomplished without some hard feelings. James T. Sparger [1866-1953], the youngest son of one of the original trustees (who had been living in Fort Worth for many years) asked of his country relations, "What's wrong with you Spargers out there that you'd let the old church fold?" or words to that effect.¹²⁹ This writer's great-grandmother, Leona (Sparger) Cavender, who was there at Oak Grove's founding in 1886, was never entirely reconciled to the move. When her funeral was held on January 6, 1965, it was held in the new Colleyville building along Pleasant Run Road.

After her death an undated letter to Mrs. Cavender was found in her belongings, written by Bro. M. G. Turner. It was probably written in 1949. Mr. Turner was a retired Methodist minister who had been a family friend for many years and had worked at Trinity Methodist Church in Fort Worth during the 1920's. Mrs. Cavender and her husband had attended the Trinity Church during the years they lived on Fort Worth's North Side. It is also evident that he had spent some time in Bedford as a boy in the 1800's. The letter was an attempt by Mr. Turner to assuage some of the sadness and bitterness caused by the demise of the Oak Grove church. It said:

The present-day homeowners who occupy most of the two-acre Oak Grove Church site include Ms. Pamela J. Sorenson of 1229 Oakgrove Lane; Mr. and Mrs. Ashraf Azer, 3201 McLain Road; Mr. and Mrs. Dewayne Nelson, 1225 Oakgrove Lane; Mr. and Mrs. Ken Thornton, 3205 McLain Road; and Mr. Ronald E. Schalk, 3209 McLain Road; all of Bedford, Texas 76021.

In northeast Tarrant County where radical change in the landscape is a daily occurrence, nearly every visible trace of the community's nineteenth and early-twentieth century past has been obliterated. A Texas Historical Marker at the site of Oak Grove's meeting house will be a welcome reminder that there was a time in Bedford when life was slower and kinder, and when people were tied to the land and each other on a daily basis.

End
 

Bibliography
 

Footnotes

94.	Central Texas Conference Minutes, 1935.
95.	ibid.
96.	ibid.
97.	Belle Sparger interview, December 9, 1999.
98.	Central Texas Conference Minutes, 1936, pp. 71, 87, 103.
99.	Jack Mayfield [born 1931], interview with Michael E. Patterson at Hurst, Texas, December 1, 1999.
100.	Central Texas Conference Minutes, 1937, p. 79.
101.	ibid., 1938, p. 61.
102.	Dorothy Ann (Fowler) Morrison [b. 1928], interview with Michael E. Patterson at Bedford, Texas, November 30, 1999.
103.	First United Methodist Church of Colleyville, church records. George Matthews [b. 1922], telephone interview with Michael E. Patterson at Salado, Texas on January 5, 1998.
104.	Central Texas Conference Minutes, 1939, p. 37.
105.	First United Methodist Church of Colleyville, church records. George Matthews interview.
106.	Central Texas Conference Minutes, 1940, pp. 84-85.
107.	ibid., 1941, pp. 96-97; 1942, p. 65.
108.	Hazel (Velte) Bowden [b. 1926], telephone interview with Michael E. Patterson at Bedford, Texas, November 29, 1999.
109.	Central Texas Conference Minutes, 1943, p. 85.
110.	Ervin Gathings [b. 1920], telephone interviews with Michael E. Patterson at Fort Worth, Texas, January 5, 1998 and December 2, 1999.
111.	"Rogers, Mrs. Margaret Jane," obituary in Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Morning, April 18, 1944.
112.	Central Texas Conference Minutes, 1944, p. 105.
113.	Doris J. (Simmons) Patterson [b. 1931], interview with Michael E. Patterson at Colleyville, Texas, December 1, 1999.
114.	Central Texas Conference Minutes, 1945, p. 101.
115.	ibid., 1946, p. 113.
116.	George Matthews interview.
117.	ibid.
118.	Central Texas Conference Minutes, 1947, p. 127.
119.	The Grapevine Sun, October 8, 1948.
120.	Central Texas Conference Minutes, 1948, p. 103.
121.	The Grapevine Sun, January 21, 1949.
122.	ibid., January 28, 1949. First United Methodist Church of Colleyville, church records.
123.	Belle Sparger interview.
124.	Central Texas Conference Minutes, 1949, pp. 195, 121, 137.
125.	ibid.
126.	Tarrant County Deed Vol. 2128, p. 70-72.
127.	Belle Sparger interview.
128.	Ray Hicks [b. 1918], interview with Michael E. Patterson at Colleyville, Texas, October 1, 1999.
129.	Belle Sparger interview.
130.	Undated typed letter from M. A. Turner to Leona H. Cavender of Colleyville, Texas. Original in possession of Michael E. Patterson at Colleyville, Texas.

Bibliography

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