Wheatland

United Methodist

Church

 

160th Anniversary

1847 – 2007

 

                

 

Welcome from the Pastor

Welcome to Wheatland as we celebrate our past and look to the future! We thank you for coming today to help in this celebration and we especially thank you for all that you have done to further God’s kingdom on earth…for letting your light shine.

“Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.” Matthew 5:16

For 160 years, Wheatland’s light has shone and God has been given the glory. Many good men and women have worked hard for the cause of Christ in our past. We are proud to be a part of that heritage.

“Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith.” Hebrews 12:1-2

The author of Hebrews had just told his readers about those men of faith who suffered many trials and temptations because of their faith (chapter 11. Then he reminded them, and us, that we have a rich heritage to uphold, and that the cause of Christ is dependent on us remembering our heritage and living for Jesus with every ounce of energy we have!

That heritage reminds us that we too must put Christ first in our lives, and we must strive to be the church Christ wants us to be, so that our future members will be able to look back and see that we, like our ancestors at Wheatland United Methodist Church, did our best to advance the kingdom of God through His church.

My prayer is that in the coming years we too will “fix our eyes upon Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith,” and that we will let our light shine before others giving glory to our Father in heaven. Amen.

Kay Hord, October 28, 2007

 

In the Beginning . . .

Wheatland United Methodist Church is known as the “oldest Methodist church west of the Trinity River.” Originally it resided in the small farming community of Wheatland. The Wheatland community may have been older than Dallas or Hord’s Ridge (the original name of Oak Cliff). With settlers arriving just before Texas entered the American Union, Wheatland may have been the first settlement in Dallas County (then a part of old Robertson County).

The Wheatland Methodist Church traces its roots back to 1838 when prayer meetings were held at the home of Reverend Thomas A. Crutchfield. Reverend Crutchfield was a veteran of Sam Houston’s army. The church was officially organized by Nacogdoches missionaries in the summer of 1847, and met in a one-room log cabin called “Wesley Chapel.”

Wesley Chapel was located southeast of the intersection of Highway 67 and Camp Wisdom Road. At the time Wesley Chapel was built, or shortly after, four pecan trees marked the corners. Those pecan trees still exist and are located in the back of a car dealership near the corner of Marvin D. Love Freeway and St. George Drive.

In 1856, the Wesley Chapel was destroyed by a tornado, which also devastated the town of Cedar Hill, eight miles to the south. Many people also died from yellow fever at about this same time. At Wesley Chapel it was believed that water from a nearby stream was contaminated because the stream lay at the foot of a slope below the Wesley cemetery. With the Wesley Chapel destroyed and to get away from the contaminated water, the Methodists moved to Wheatland and established the church in a new location.

At the time of the move Wheatland was known as “Sprowls’ Corner,” “Sprowls Store,” or just “Sprowls,” named after an early settler. When the United States Postal Service continued to confuse “Sprowls” with “Sowers,” another Dallas County community, the name was changed to “Wheatland.” Tom Branson and H. K. Brotherton, partners in the real estate business, donated the land for the church building, as well as for a school, cemetery, and for the town of Wheatland itself.

Jackson Bell began the construction of the original Wheatland Methodist Church building in 1856. He was a pioneer builder and Sam Penn’s maternal grandfather. The foundation stones were hand-quarried limestone blocks from a local rock quarry. The lumber was hauled from Louisiana in ox-drawn wagons. The original lumber still supports the present structure.

In 1912, the need for expansion caused the congregation concern because of its policy to remain debt-free. However, Albert A. Rowe, a local builder, was asked to estimate the cost of a new structure. Ten members of the congregation, who gave $300.00 each, contributed the $3,000.00 required. To the best of anyone’s knowledge, those ten were Charles Brotherton, T. B. Brixie, W. C. Davis, Charles S. Uhl, Lynn Brotherton, John Penn, Eph Bell, Will Rowe, Frank Tufts and Jess Spillers. (In later years, Eph Wilmut and William Bullock each contributed $300.00 towards re-roofing this same structure.)

With the entire cost of the new church building in hand, the construction began and was completed in the same year. As part payment for his services, Mr. Rowe stipulated that the new structure would have pictured glass windows like Dutch churches in his native state of Pennsylvania. The congregation agreed to this, and theirs was to be the first “country” church in this area to have pictured glass windows.

In the midst of the country’s depression, funds to support a church were hard to raise. Several times the church’s insurance lapsed. The women of the church took on the responsibility to make certain that this did not happen again. They gave socials and suppers, but soon found that they could not raise enough money for their purpose that way; so they began to quilt. Quilts were donated, quilted and sold, and their cause was amply supported. Once, when a pastor’s salary could not be met by regular church contributions, the ladies were challenged to make up the shortage with their quilting money; but they refused to give up any of their insurance fund.

Dallas annexed Wheatland in the mid 1950s so it is now part of a large busy city. Except for a few renovations over the years, the church building remains much the same as it was when originally constructed. In fact, Wheatland United Methodist Church is now known as the “Country Church in the City.”

In 1965, the Wheatland Methodist Church building was designated as a Texas historical landmark. Additional information about the history of the church and the Wheatland community can be found at the “History” link on the church’s website at www.wheatlandumc.org.

Wheatland United Methodist Church, known as the “Oldest Methodist Church West of the Trinity River” and the “Country Church in the City” is a charming piece of local history preserved in its original setting. Everyone is welcome to come by and see the beautiful old church with the fantastic stained glass windows and beautiful grounds.

 

 

The Unofficial Wheatland Historical Society

Note, story originally written by Joan Swanson around 1997.

        Most of us have heard the story, how Wheatland Church started out as Wesley Chapel, over near where Red Bird Mall is now. The big pecan trees that were planted at the four corners of the log chapel are still standing, at the rear of property now owned by Stephens Buick.

      And we’ve heard about the remodeling of this building in 1912, when Mr. Rowe agreed to do the building, provided the church would have “picture windows” like the ones he remembered from Pennsylvania.

      But when several descendents of original families gathered last week to reminisce, we heard stories that Marjorie Miller called “color, like, they have for football games.”

      Like the time Marshall Miller’s daddy and his brother switched the babies that were sleeping in the wagons during a church meeting. When everyone went home it was dark, they didn’t have electricity, so they just put the babies to bed in the dark, and the next day discovered they had the wrong babies. The boys had been very sure to trade one baby from Cedar Hill with one from Houston School Road. In fact, his dad told Marshall that was the last time he went to Wesley Chapel! Marjorie said she had heard the same stories from her daddy, so it must have been a favorite prank in those days.

      And like the time Alice Woods remembers when her mama decided to take a hot lunch to the men working on the new building, with Alice helping her.

      Everyone remembered the big chandelier that hung in the middle of the new sanctuary. Alice said it was so bright. There was no electricity then, so Ethel Rowe Smith thought it must have been a carbide light chandelier. And she remembered the ceiling, before it was covered over with pressed board tiles, was patterned tin. There were also big ceiling fans, similar to the ones we have now, and a big brass bell in the belfry. That bell was sold during World War II to make munitions.

      At one time there was a kitchen upstairs off the balcony - can you imagine carrying all that food up and down those stairs? Leon Rowe remembers when he went to Sunday School in one of those rooms. The boys would wait till their teacher went down to church, and then they would open the window and slide down the pipe outside. Later, after the Fellowship Hall was built, the pastor’s study was in one of those balcony rooms.

      Everyone in the area went to Wheatland School. There were two buildings, located between the present school and the cemetery, and when there would be a funeral, school would let out and all the children marched down to stand at attention. And when the school had a championship girl’s basketball team, two of the star players were Vera Miller and Velma Penn.

Alma Blanks remembers driving by horse and wagon to finish high school in Lancaster

Leon remembered the baptizings that were done at “Uncle Billy” Sprouls’ swimming holes on Five Mile Creek - on property where Oak Cliff Country Club golf course is now. They called them the “upper hole” and the “lower hole” and the preacher had to remember to announce the right one.

One December, the Administrative Board was discussing where to send the apportionment money earmarked for the Bishop. The orphans in Waco were really needing money too; so the board, consisting of H.K. Brotherton, Marjorie’s daddy, and Grace Davis, decided the orphans needed it more than the Bishop, and all the money was sent to Waco.

Then there was the day that had been planned to pour the foundation for the new parsonage - now the nursery building. All the men of the church had promised to be there, but only Marshall Miller and Perry Brandenburg showed up. Finally they gave up on the others and walked around the corner to Mr. Buck’s gas station and domino parlor, and said, “We need help!” So Mr. Buck just shut down the domino game till the work at the church got finished. Those men worked all day, scooping gravel and pushing wheelbarrows - and not one of them even a Methodist!

      These were just a few of the stories that came to mind the other day, but we hope there will be more meetings of the “Unofficial Wheatland Historical Society” in the near future. Wheatland has indeed had “so great a cloud of witnesses” that we must not let these memories pass away.

Remembering The Wheatland Methodist Church

by Charles Mays

      When the Wheatland Methodist Church was 100 years old, and I was a young boy, I attended the commemoration with my family. It was a special Sunday, that I remembered, along with most of the others from my youth, while living with my grandmother at the Nance Farm.

We went to church every Sunday, not just at Easter and Christmas and Mother’s Day. My aunt, Evelyn Nance, had the responsibility of guiding her twin boys and all of the other community children down the “straight and narrow” in the Sunday School class attended by children bearing family names that are still known and respected around the old Wheatland community.

We met just off the sanctuary in a small room that always had either the beginnings of a quilt, or a nearly completed one, stretched over a frame drawn above us at the ceiling. The quilt, waiting for more fine stitchings and the accompanying gentle conversation of the ladies of the church, often incorporated a pattern provided by the “Home Demonstration Club,” which was a ladies’ society that met regularly in various homes. We kids knew all about this since it was a time before the popularity of baby sitters or “child care specialists.” In those days, children were taken to adult gatherings, with admonitions to be on their best behavior, with sure-to-be-kept promises of a good “licking” in the event of any deviation from that best behavior.

There was rarely an instance of not behaving properly at church services. My grandmother, Ethel Nance, sang the alto part in a choir of about eight members. She and my great aunt, Eva Wilmut, who played the piano and later took a chair in the choir loft during the service, had quite a vantage for observing all of the “cousins” in the congregation.

If we did misbehave, we certainly dreaded the silence during the drive back home in my grandmother’s sleek, bright green 1936 Buick four door sedan, as we passed by Mr. Buck Biggs’ Sinclair filling station, on down Hampton Road past Tufts dairy, and by the mailbox at the Coker place, and finally turning down that ever lengthening gravel road toward home. The sting of a slim switch, hastily cut from the branch of a pear tree, against the backs of bare, little legs, was not one of the greatest joys of my youth. But the memory lingers.

At that time, there was often a permanent preacher employed by the church, but there were also interim preachers filling the pulpit from time to time, as well as divinity students. I suppose that a small church practicing an “old time religion” was a pretty good training ground for a young deliverer of sermons with a lot of theological theory.

I shall always cherish the many enduring memories of Wheatland Methodist Church - the friends of my youth, the church with the stained glass windows, which are memorials to my ancestors, the cemetery where my grandparents, great-grandparents and great great grandparents are buried. These are sources of treasured memories, indeed.

A Letter to Gregory

By Joan Smith King

Note, this letter was written for the christening of her one-year-old grandson at Wheatland on November 29, 1974. Appropriate pictures have been added.

In a sense we’ve been waiting for you. Through seven generations - over 125 years - this family has been preparing for today; the day you would come to this church to receive your Christian name and, together with members of your family, receive God’s blessing.

The histories of our family and this church were - and again today, are - interrelated and interdependent. Each has supported the other. We have had a coincidental history.

Your christening today adds to that history. It will become a time to be remembered. And like other such times is also a time for remembering.

The Wheatland Methodist Church was first not a building but a need. Pioneers had come in small groups from Illinois and Missouri to this part of Texas, to this place. Even before there was a community called Wheatland, they recognized a need to join together in what John Wesley had called a class meeting, a group gathering to study the Bible and worship God together. First, they met in a home then, about the time that Texas became the 28th state, they built a log cabin for their Sunday meetings.

The whole, scattered settlement was called Cedar Hill. The little church was named Wesley Chapel. Because only a few people lived in the area, it became a union church shared by Methodists, Baptists and Campbellites. In that cabin built of sturdy native cedar logs your great, great, great, great grandfather, Thomas Branson, worshiped with others from his caravan when he first arrived from Illinois in 1853.

The terrible storm, which struck Cedar Hill in 1856, destroyed that first log cabin. It was rebuilt and used for another 20 years as a union church and school.

In 1859, however, the Methodists built their own church on a separate site, and again named it Wesley Chapel. The land for the church building, a cemetery and a school were given by our ancestor Thomas Branson and his partner H. K. Brotherton. The church has been added to and modernized, especially in 1912. The original central portion remains on the same firm foundation of hand-sawn white rock quarried from the little creek running between church and cemetery. And that is where you were christened 115 years later.

Thus, the life of that church and the lives of our family members were intertwined, both in those early days and ever since. Births, marriages and deaths have been recognized, celebrated and shared there. For a long time the church was the center of religious, educational and social life in that community. It was a place of shared work, a place for learning, a place where friends visited, where young men and women met and were married and where funerals were held.

The original plans of the donated property included a “public” place for burials but also an especially deeded plot for the burial of descendants of the Bransons and the Brothertons. Tom Branson died before proper deeds were legally recorded of those original plans. His son-in-law, Samuel Uhl, took care of the needed legalities and gave some of his own property to expand the original plot set aside for the “family” cemetery. Many of your ancestors have been buried in the family portion of the churchyard. Thomas Branson was the first adult male in that number. Later, the first Brixeys were buried there.

Before then, however, your great, great, great grandfather, Samuel Uhl, came from Missouri to Cedar Hill three different years, 1858, 1859, 1860, driving a herd of sheep to sell to the Texans. On those visits he met Thomas Branson’s daughter, Eleanor, and after the third visit he decided to settle in the Cedar Hill community. On Christmas Day in 1862, while on leave from his military duty during the Civil War, Samuel Uhl and Eleanor Branson were married. Soon after, his brother, Thomas Uhl, married Eleanor’s sister, Emily. Both families were active members of Wesley Chapel.

Because Samuel Uhl lived to be 98 years old, dying after my eighth birthday, I did have the opportunity to know him. My memory is that when we visited him on Sundays he always had on his Confederate uniform. He was inordinately proud of it and was buried in it in “our” cemetery. He was so old when I knew him that I don’t recall ever seeing him at the church, but I have been told that I was present when his family and friends celebrated his 95th birthday at the Wheatland Methodist Church in 1927.

By his 95th birthday, Sam Uhl had lived in the Cedar Hill-Wheatland community for 69 years. For over 50 of those years he was a steward of the Wheatland Church making decisions about its pastors, its mission and its membership. Like all “good” Methodist he was an advocate of the principles of total abstinence and prohibition.

Samuel Uhl and Eleanor Branson had eleven children, eight of whom survived childhood. Their seventh child, Carrie Lee, was my maternal grandmother.

Just as Sam Uhl had done a generation before, Thomas Brixey came from Missouri in 1888 to seek his fortune in Texas. He settled at Cedar Hill where he met Sam Uhl’s daughter, Carrie Lee. They were married on Christmas Eve in 1895. They, too, became active members of the church. By that time its name had been changed to the Wheatland Methodist Church. As more people settled in that part of the county, the name Cedar Hill came to apply to only part of its original area. After Sam Uhl came home from the Civil War, he named “our” part Wheatland.

It was to this church that Carrie and Tom Brixey brought their children to Sunday School and to Sunday services. The third of their five children was my mother, Ida.

Because she was planning to be present today for your christening I asked her to relate some of her memories of the Wheatland Church so that I could record them here for you.

Ida was born in 1900 and therefore was between eleven and twelve years old when the Methodist decided to enlarge their church. The total cost of the project was estimated to be $3,000.00, a tremendous sum for a group of farmers most of whom seldom had any cash. However, each of the members pledged either to contribute money or their labor to the project. Tom Brixey’s contribution included using his wagon and team of horses to haul several loads of lumber. The lumber had been cut in Louisiana, came up the Trinity River, and was unloaded at the dock near the Jefferson and Ewing livery stable in Oak Cliff. Each wagon trip took about four hours in each direction in addition to the loading and unloading. There were many such trips from dawn to dusk that summer. The reason Mamaw (Ida) has such a vivid memory of the remodeling of the church, even now, is that she and her brother and sisters had to do most of the farm work that summer. Their father was working for the church. The stained glass windows in memory of Eleanor Branson and Samuel Uhl were paid for by several family members jointly. Each window cost $300.00, which was a great deal of money at that time.

One of her happy memories connected with the church is the first wedding Ida said she’d ever attended. (The first wedding I attended also was in that church - my cousin Van Smith marrying Ethel Rowe.) One Sunday - she doesn’t remember the date - Moselle Branson married Mr. Lowe immediately following the regular worship service. All the congregation stayed for the ceremony. The vivid memory was created by the combination of the handsome navy blue velvet suit, which Moselle wore, and an armful of long stemmed red roses tied with red satin streamers, which she carried. In their rural community where almost everything was hand made and home grown, a store-bought dress and hothouse roses created an indelible memory on a little girl.

She recalls that once she created an opportunity for a store bought dress of her own and this story, too, she remembers in connection with the church. She was either twelve or thirteen - she doesn’t remember exactly - but young in age although mature of body. It was her “turn” to go with her father to Dallas on his usual Saturday trip when he delivered eggs, butter and sometimes milk. Papa Brixey had a regular route all spring and summer and regular customers to whose homes in Oak Cliff he sold his farm produce.

About four o’clock in the morning “Papa” and Ida left in the surrey pulled by a team of horses. They arrived about eight o’clock - four hours later. Then, after selling all their wares Ida talked Papa into going across the low water bridge over the Trinity River to see the sights of Dallas. They easily agreed on the trip but had two different aims in mind. Papa wanted to leave the surrey and team at the livery stable by the Courthouse and find a drink at the saloon; Ida could occupy herself meanwhile “window shopping” at the ladies ready to wear store. Mamaw tells what happened next this way:

“While window shopping I saw the dress I’d always wanted. It was black silk crepe cut princess style. It was ankle length and had a white lace collar and cuffs. It was beautiful. It cost $10.00! After he’d had his drink Papa agreed to buy it for me.

When we got home that night - it was dark by the time we got there - Mama really fussed at us both! Papa, because he’d had something to drink, and me because I had the dress. That was too much money to waste on a girl’s dress, and a black one at that.

In spite of Mama’s complaints I was permitted to wear the dress to church the next day. I was the most dressed-up person at the Wheatland Church. I can see me now sitting up in the choir in that beautiful, black dress.”

Mamaw admits that not all her misdeeds ended that happily, however. Going to church was the social event of the week, especially in the summer time when school was not in session. Not to be able to go to church was severe punishment. Mamaw remembered that once Mama Brixey told her that the family was invited to Saturday supper at a neighbor’s house. Ida announced that she didn’t want to “go to old lady Beazley’s house for supper!” Such disrespectful impertinence was punished by Ida being denied going to Sunday School and Church the next day. She had to stay home and peel the potatoes for Sunday dinner - and not be able to see her friends for another whole week! Punishment, indeed.

The most fascinating of her stories about the Wheatland Church is about their elopement – Ida’s and Hoke’s.

Hoke Smith first appeared in Ida’s life when his sister, Gertrude, was hired to teach at the Wheatland school. Because their home in Duncanville was about five miles away Hoke changed from attending the Duncanville school to the Wheatland School so that he could drive his sister in their wagon. In order for her to be a part of the community in which she was teaching, Gertrude (and Hoke, also) started attending the Wheatland Methodist Church instead of the Duncanville Baptist Church. So, both in church and in school Hoke and Ida came to know each other.

Hoke attended school in Wheatland for about two years before he went off to East Texas Normal College at Commerce. He was at college only one semester, however, before he was called home to manage his family’s farm. His father was old and dying, his brothers were married and gone and his mother could not manage the farm alone.

When Hoke came back home he continued coming to the Wheatland Church. In fact he taught one of the Sunday School classes there. The several classes were all held in the sanctuary of the church since there were no separate rooms. Curtains separated the different classes and then were drawn back when Sunday School was over and “church” began.

During “church” all the young people (about 20 as Mamaw recalls) sat in the choir. That’s where Hoke and Ida could secretly hold hands under the hymnal.

Her parents thought Ida was too young to have a sweetheart. Their worst fears were substantiated one day when Hoke had come calling on her. Mama Brixey caught Hoke kissing Ida in the hallway.  “Papa” was called to banish that brash young man from their home.

It was too late. Hoke and Ida had already decided they wanted to marry. Hoke’s family was sympathetic to an elopement plan that was soon devised. One of Ida’s friends, Rua Pelt, was the daughter of Hoke’s older half-brother. Rua was also the sweetheart of Ware Tufts, whose family was highly regarded by the Brixeys.  Rua acted as a go-between arranging for Ware to persuade his mother to give a party at their home for all the young people in Wheatland.

Using the telephone which by 1916 had been installed in most homes in the area, Rua kept Ida informed of the developing plans. They had to speak in code, however, so that all the listeners on the party line would not know what was being planned.

Only a month before Gertrude had married Ida’s cousin, Earl Branson. These two newlyweds were also “in” on the arrangements. Several days in advance Hoke had taken his sister Gertrude to Dallas to purchase the wedding license and to buy Ida’s wedding clothes. The wedding dress was made of white taffeta with big chiffon sleeves and tiny covered buttons down the back. The newly purchased clothes were hidden away in the steeple of the Wheatland Methodist Church until the wedding day – or night, rather.

Ida’s brother, Archie, had asked her to go to Ware Tuft’s party with a friend of his, but Ida insisted Henry Folks was too old for her and finally persuaded her brother to take her and her sister, Bess, himself.

When she dressed for the party Ida put on her white shoes and stockings and several extra petticoats, not knowing what all had been hidden in the church steeple. As soon as the three Brixeys arrived at the Tuft’s house, Ware sent Archie and Bess inside to the party but led Ida on foot about a quarter of a mile away from the house and over a barbed wire fence. There on a country road Hoke was waiting with a jitney, a driver and the retrieved wedding dress.

They drove first to Gertrude’s house where Ida changed into her wedding attire. The jitney driver said he knew a preacher. To find him they drove to a political rally, which was taking place that night on Jefferson Avenue in Oak Cliff. There the driver found his friend the preacher who hastily read the marriage ceremony, took their license, accepted the $15.00 fee and returned to the rally. The jitney was hurriedly driven to the train station across the river in Dallas. Hoke and Ida just barely caught the 11:00 p.m. train to Galveston.

After their honeymoon Hoke and Ida returned to a gradually forgiving family on the Brixey side and a warm welcome on the Smith side. But as soon as they could they left the rural community in which they had grown up and chose, instead, to be urban dwellers.

However, like most people who live in the city, they returned from time to time to touch home ground.  Periodically they returned to the Wheatland Church to attend a wedding, a funeral or some kind of celebration for one family member or another.

Growing up as a child in that family, living in the city but never forgetting the country, I heard over and over again stories of the olden days. I liked hearing stories about what my parents did, what my grandparents did, what my great grandparents did, etc. etc.  Often the church was part of the story.

And so, today, I am glad that the church - our family’s church - is part of your life story, too. Whatever your life holds for you, I hope that from time to time you will be able to touch home ground. It may be that you can do it literally by coming to the Wheatland Church. Even tho’ the city is engulfing it, the building has become a Texas Historical Landmark and, therefore, will probably be here for you to “come home” to.

Or, you may “come home” only figuratively by re-reading and “remembering” your family’s history - especially as it relates to the church. Your family has helped to sustain the church out of gratitude for being sustained by it and its teachings.

What your family hopes for you and promises in your name today is in the christening ceremony written by your Grandfather Morton and your Mother and Father. It begins: “We are here to celebrate new beginnings.”

May you always know the power of God’s grace and love thru your family and the church.

With love,

 

 

Pastors Who Have Served Wheatland

Note, this list was compiled by Emma Uhl and updated by Myra Shepardson.

Over the years many dedicated men and women have served the needs of the Wesley Chapel and the Wheatland Church. The following list is in their honor:

Samuel Uhl

(Ida Brixey Smith’s Grandfather)

Note, the following article was selected because of Samuel Uhl’s colorful life and importance to the early community of Wheatland. It was written by Joan Smith King in August 1994. Appropriate pictures have been added.

 Samuel Uhl was born (November 26, 1832) and grew up on the border of Maryland and Pennsylvania. It was near Wellersburg in Somerset County, Pennsylvania and Mt. Savage in Allegheny County, Maryland. He died April 21, 1930 in Wheatland, southern Dallas County, Texas at age 98.

In 1846, at age 14, he moved with his parents Leah Flickinger (1809-1847) and Archibald Uhl (1808-1850) to Carlinville, Macoupin County, Illinois. Between Spring and Fall of 1854, he worked his way 2,000 miles to the California gold fields earning his way as a driver of cattle. One motive was to find his father who had gone out in 1850. In California, he discovered his father had died shortly after arrival. After three years of gold mining for himself, he returned to Illinois, but soon left on the first of three trips to Texas driving sheep to be sold there. In 1858 he settled in Texas, to spend the rest of his long life at Wheatland. On December 24, 1862 he married Eleanor Branson (b. 3-10-42, d. 9-12-07). She was the daughter of Thomas A. Branson and Louisa Cole Branson. The Branson and Cole families had come to Wheatland in 1853 from the adjacent county in Illinois, Sangamon, where they had known the Uhls.

Samuel Uhl in 1861 enlisted in the Confederate Army, serving in the Texas-Mississippi Department with Company F, Col. Parson’s 12th Texas Calvary.

This service was a very important episode in his life, to its very end. I remember well that on Sundays he put on his Confederate uniform to greet family and guests at his farm home. On such occasions he was not reluctant to “speechify” on the subject of states’ rights. He had attended many Confederate soldiers’ reunions. At his request, he was buried wearing that uniform at the Wheatland cemetery.

The original land donation for the Wesley Chapel was given by Thomas Branson in 1864. Later the Methodist Church yard was extended to provide a cemetery. The Wheatland School was built on this same land. Additional land was added to expand the cemetery by Samuel Uhl in 1872 at which time he specified that all the Branson and Uhl descendants and spouses should have the right to be buried there. Many are, and members of my generation are planning to be.

The Flickinger Family History written in 1927 summarizes Samuel Uhl’s life this way:

As a progressive farmer in Texas, Mr. Uhl endeavored to combine an approved rotation of crops and the maintenance of large herds of stock, including sheep, with an extensive cultivation of cotton; and was greatly prospered. He had acquired the ownership of 700 acres of land, previous to the time of its division a few years ago among his children. He has served many years as a trusted official of the M.E. church (steward), and has been a life-long advocate of the principles of total abstinence and prohibition. As a veteran of the Civil War he has to his credit four years of faithful patriotic service.

One of Samuel Uhl’s daughters-in-law, Emma Balch (Mrs. Charles South) Uhl wrote several accounts of his life based on what she had heard him tell. For his 95th birthday celebration, she wrote:

He is a charter member of the Oak Cliff Masonic Lodge. When Wheatland was first established as a voting precinct he served for over twenty years as the presiding officer of the elections. For years and years he was school trustee. For more than fifty years he has been a leader of the Methodist church here.

He has been a constant attendant of the pioneers reunions of Dallas and has traveled thousand of miles attending various reunions of the Confederacy.

For the past five years he has been blind, yet he maintains an active interest in everything going on; listening over his radio, being read to by relatives or friends, his mind is brilliant and his memory clear. And thus he is rounding out his 95th year and is looking forward cheerful, joyous and alert. He has seen all the modern inventions come into use.

He has lived the span from the stagecoach days and the tallow candle to the automobile and the airship, the cotton gin and the factories, the transportation facilities and the great strides of civilization and commerce that have wrested the plains from the Indians and the buffaloes and planted cities upon a thousand hills. Thus he serenely awaits his century birthday joyously and eagerly.

Great Aunt Emma Balch Uhl remembered and recorded Samuel’s stories of his trip to California.

On April 9, 1854, Sam Uhl with twelve other men started with a herd of 200 cattle, from Chicago to drive across country to California. There were three wagons for provisions and camp equipment. They traveled the same emigrant trail that Emmerson Hough described in the “Covered Wagon.” There were no Indian raids, for at that time traffic was so heavy that within an hour’s time a hundred armed men could be gathered together to meet any Indian raids. So heavy was travel this year that the clouds of dust along the trail marked the army of travelers that were seeking a change of fortune with a change of country as far ahead, or as far behind as the eye could see. So in numbers there was safety. They were five months crossing the plains but game was plentiful and there were as many buffaloes in the Platte River as he ever saw cattle on the Texas plains.

After leaving Fort Laramie they crossed the Rocky Mountains at the South Pass and wintered the cattle in the Sacramento Valley. Mr. Uhl left the herd at Gibsonville and began work in the field mines washing away the dirt from the nuggets with water. He also did underground mining. He learned but little of his father after reaching there, only that he had died of pneumonia soon after he got across to California.

The winters of 1852 and 1856 were the years of California heavy snows. In 1856 the snow began in November and lasted until May. During one snowstorm that winter the snow fell four feet in 24 hours. The next morning when they awoke they were a buried settlement. They had to open their cabin doors and shovel the snow into the cabin to make way for them to burrow out. Then began the shoveling to clear their cabins and make access to the outside. This snow lasted nearly all winter. There were some snow-shoes but not many so those who did not possess them remained inside rather than risk being buried alive in the loose snow outside.

The mail and express were carried by foot and by the snowshoe route. It cost 25 cents a letter to have mail brought into camp from Marysville, a distance of seventy-five miles, and the nearest post office.

The trees were cut at the snow line for fuel and next spring the settlement was filled with topped trees whose stumps were four feet high.

There were no cashier’s checks in those days. What money you had you carried with you, so when he was leaving California he purchased a buckskin vest quilted in squares large enough to conceal and hold a $20.00 gold piece. In this manner he was able to bring his earnings of $1,800.00 safely out of the country with him and thus start into business for himself. In December, 1857, he sailed from San Francisco harbor, by steamship, to the Isthmus of Panama, crossing it by rail to Aspinwall, New Colon, and again taking ship to Havana, thence to New Orleans, and from there by boat to St. Louis and by rail home again, at Carlinville, where he and his brothers set out in the sheep business for Texas.

Here is Great Aunt Emma’s account of his sheep drives from Missouri to Texas, and early life there:

Samuel Uhl and his two brothers, A.J. and Thomas Uhl, in 1858 drove a herd of 1,100 sheep from Shelby County Missouri to Dallas. They started with a chuck wagon and yoke of oxen, in addition to their herd of sheep. By the time they reached Corbert’s ferry, one of their oxen took sick and died on the Indian territory side of Red River, and the next day the other one died on the Texas side. After the death of their oxen, they traded their chuck wagon and its contents for a pony and a saddle and came on down the old cattle trail to Sherman.

At that place they divided their herd into two lots. Thomas and A.J. Uhl took one drove and followed the McKinney road to Plano, where they sold their sheep or traded them for young mules. Sam Uhl drove the others on the Preston road to Cedar Springs Crossing on the Trinity River and came on out by the old French colony and thence out to Major John Penn’s whose post office was Cedar Hill. Major Penn had come out from Sangamon County, Illinois several years before, and he and Mr. Uhl’s family had been friends back in the states. The following spring, Mr. Uhl sold his sheep to Nick Simms on Chambers Creek in Ellis County, after which he rode back to Carlinville, Illinois in Sangamon County. The unique feature of this trip was that Sam Uhl walked all the way grazing their sheep as they came, and making about seven or eight miles a day.

In August, 1859, they bought another herd of 1,200 sheep and drove them through as before, along the same trail, which was the emigrant trail from Missouri to Texas, walking and grazing as they brought them. After disposing of this flock in the Spring, Sam Uhl and a brother again went back over the same emigrant trail from Texas to Missouri, in a covered wagon, to Sedalia, Missouri, and from there by rail to Calhoun County, Michigan, where they bought a thousand head of two-year-old full-blood Delaine sheep. They shipped them, from there by rail to Quincy, Illinois, and from there for the third time they took the emigrant trail to Texas. Leaving there in August, they proceeded on their way as before, passing through Cedar Hill on the day of the presidential election, in which Lincoln was elected.

They drove this herd on to Hill County and sold it at $8.00 and $10.00 per head - a big price in those days for sheep. After disposing of this third flock of sheep they came back and spent the winter in the Cedar Hill vicinity.

After the Civil War he returned to what was then known as the Cedar Hill vicinity, but is now the Wheatland community - and it was so named by Mr. Uhl - and there settled down to farming and stock raising. He has always kept sheep, good cattle, hogs and horses, and has practiced diversified farming. At the close of the Civil War, land values were around $5.00 an acre. There were no bridges and no roads other than what was known as the trails over the open range. There were plenty of deer and wild turkey, also antelopes, but no buffalo nearer than Parker County.

In the early 80s, he and a partner built a gin in Wheatland, which they operated for about three years, then sold it. He began freighting from Calvert on the H. & T. C., the nearest railroad point, soon after the Civil War, making consignments to mark points in Dallas, Collin, Denton, Parker, Ellis and Tarrant counties. He had both oxen and mule teams. He accepted all kinds of commissions from lumber to millinery.

He bought on his freighter’s van all the needs of the households that were scattered over the wide prairies along his route. There was hard work - there was humor, there were heartbreaks, that the citizen with his automobile, with his telephone, with his radio, knows not of. On one of his freighting trips in the earlier years of his married life, his baby boy at that time his only son, was taken sick with diphtheria. From the first, it was known the child was seriously ill, and so runners were dispatched for the father, who was already overdue on his return trip. But death out rode the messenger, and the child was buried before the father reached his home.

In addition to her reports, I found in a History of Dallas County an account of Samuel Uhl joining other leaders in signing a “Memorial” on June 4, 1868 sent to the Texas legislature urging the appropriation of funds to make the “majestic Trinity River navigable.” The resolution did not pass.

Samuel Uhl and Eleanor Branson Uhl had eleven children, nine of whom survived, and thirty-one grandchildren, of whom my mother was one. The children are:

Many of Samuel and Eleanor Uhl’s grandchildren have continued to live in Dallas County. When his granddaughter Ida’s sons, Vernon and James, bought land for a housing development they found that the original deed showed the owner to have been Samuel Uhl.

Others have lived and worked far and wide. I have recently corresponded with Ben Forrest Uhl’s family (They had lived all over the world while he did petroleum engineering work but have now returned to Texas.)

Also I have been somewhat surprised at how many of the Uhl relatives return each year to the Memorial Day gathering at the Wheatland Methodist Church and Wheatland Cemetery. It is easy to connect with family roots in that one location for there have been relatives buried there for at least five generations.

Samuel Uhl was adventurous and enterprising, and also a stable family man and a community leader. He was both ingenious and practical: after seeking golden treasure in California, he herded sheep cross-country to acquire the capital for Texas land and business opportunities. He learned, however, that lasting treasures grow from community roots. The legacy he left for us, his family, was a church which is an Historic Landmark, a school where intellects expand and a cemetery where the family can gather together annually in life and more permanently in death.

The 1874 Deed

In order to join the Lancaster Circuit, the Wheatland Church (at the time still called the Wesley Church) was required to have a deed. The following is the deed as written by Samuel Uhl to the trustees:

Samuel Uhl

To Trustees of Methodist Episcopal Church South

Deed

The State of Texas, County of Dallas,

Know all men by these present that I Samuel Uhl of the County of Dallas and State of Texas in consideration of love and esteem I entertain for the cause of Jesus Christ and for the sum of One Dollar to me in hand paid by Geo. C. Parks, George Butcher, Robt George, Samuel Uhl, William Sprowles, S. M. Butcher, James Sprowles, and James H. Swindells, Trustees of the Lancaster Circuit North West Texas Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church South in the State of Texas the receipt whereof is hereby acknowledged have granted, bargained sold and released and by these presents do hereby grant, bargain, sell, and release unto the said G. W. Parks and others Trustees as aforesaid and their successors in office all that tract of land lying and being in the County of Dallas and State aforesaid, on the waters of Five Mile Creek, the same being a part of a three hundred and twenty acre colony Headright survey patented to Thomas Branson assignee of and described as follows to wit:

Beginning at a stake on the West line of said Survey, 145 4/10 varas North of the S. W. corner thereof and the S. E. corner of John R. Bell’s 640 acre colony survey. Thence North 152 varas to a stake in said line for corner. Thence East passing the S. W. corner of the Branson Cemetery, 147 1/2 varas to its S. E. corner, a stake. Thence North 70 varas to the N. E. corner of the said Cemetery. Thence East 200 varas to a stake on bank of branch from which a Hackberry 8 inches in diamr bears S. 55 E. 9 6/10 varas. Thence South 7º East 160 varas to a stake on bank of Spring Branch from which an Elm 12 inches in diamr bears S. 45 1/4º E. 4 varas. Thence South 23 1/2º West crossing branch 77 2/10 varas to a point immediately over a Spring at which a Cedar 14 inches in diamr now grows. Thence West crossing said Spring branch at 60 varas cross another branch in all 337 varas to the place of beginning, containing Twelve acres.

Together with all and singular the rights, members, hereditaments and appurtenances to the same belonging, or in, anywise appertaining. To have and to hold all and singular, the premises above mentioned unto the said George W. Parks and others, Trustees as aforesaid, and their successors in office forever.

And I do hereby bind myself my heirs executors and administrators to warrant and forever defend, all and singular, the said premises unto the said George W. Parks, George Butcher, Robert George, Wm Sprowles, S. M. Butcher, James Sprowles and James H. Swindells. Trustees as aforesaid and their successors in office, against every person, whomsoever, lawfully claiming or to claim the same or any part thereof.

Witness my hand and scrawl for seal this 2nd day of March AD 1874

Samuel Uhl

Note, a vara is an old Spanish unit of length and appears in many deeds in the southern United States. It varied in size at various times and places. In Texas the vara is 33 1/3 inches long.

Excerpt from the 1874 Deed

 

 

Sketch of the Wesley Chapel  Property from the 1874 Deed

 

 

Wheatland School Picture - 1896 Photo provided by Marcia Pitt

Henry K. Brotherton

Note, the following information was provided by Marcia Pitt

Henry K. Brotherton, a retired farmer living near Wheatland, has been identified with the interests of Dallas County, Texas, since 1850. He is a native of Ohio, born in Franklin County, September 12, 1824, a son of Robert and Mary (Kooken) Brotherton, natives of Pennsylvania, the father, born in Erie County and of Scotch-Irish descent. His maternal grandfather, James Kooken, came from Germany and settled in Pennsylvania.

Robert Brotherton and his wife went to Ohio at an early day and settled in Franklin County. In 1812, at the time Columbus was laid out, they moved to that city, where they spent the rest of their lives. They were the parents of seven children, six of whom, three sons and three daughters, lived to maturity.

The subject of our sketch was the oldest son and the second-born, and when he was about eleven years old his father died, the mother surviving him several years. During his youth he was employed as clerk in his uncle’s general merchandise store at Groveport, near Columbus, and was thus occupied up to the time of his coming to Texas. The maintenance of his mother and her family devolved largely on him. Mr. Brotherton was married in the Fall of 1859 to Miss Rachel Melvin Minor, a native of Ohio and a daughter of Irving Minor. Her father moved from New England to Ohio at an early period and was there a prominent physician and pioneer.

In the fall of 1850 Mr. Brotherton and his wife, in company with James H. Swindells and wife, started with horse teams for Texas, then the frontier of civilization, the journey consumed several weeks and the party arriving here just before Christmas. He first located on what is known as the Tommy Crutchfield farm, buying 640 acres of land and subsequently 320 acres more. After living there three years he sold out and bought the Daniels place, consisting of two sections of land, and lived on it two years. Selling out again, he purchased his present farm which at that time had very few improvements on it. His estate at one time consisted of 1200 acres in his home place besides various other tracts of land. He has, however, divided his holdings among his children, retaining for himself 400 acres of highly improved land.

In 1869 Mr. Brotherton had the misfortune to lose his wife, who died, leaving him with six children, whose names are as follows: (1) Charles Row, married Mary (Josie) Josephine Taylor; (2) Mollie F., married Eph Wilmut; (3) Robert (Button) Minor, married Mildred Hash Whaley; (4) Ellen, married Sam Shultz; (5) Lucy, married G. V. Hale M.D.; and (6) Lyne Sterling, married Kittie Sneed.

Mr. Brotherton is eminently a self made man. In connection with his farming pursuits, he has been interested in the Kilburn Mill for several years. He has also been somewhat of a trader. At one time he purchased a store and stock of goods at Lancaster, selling out a few weeks later. In 1863 and 1864 he was a member of the Board of County Commissioners.

Wheatland Music Class About 1906 Jake Brotherton, top row second from left and Gertrude Branson, bottom row second from left eventually married. Al Brotherton, bottom row far left eventually married Blanche Branson (not shown in picture). Photo provided by Marcia Pitt

 

Alfred Lemuel Whaley

Alfred Lemuel Whaley was born March 2, 1868, the son of Texas pioneers. He came to Wheatland in 1900 to enter the general merchandising business. He was always interested in community betterment and served in various capacities toward that goal. He loved people and was always glad to help and counsel with those who came to him.

The A. L. Whaley store in Wheatland. We lived upstairs in 3 large rooms with a hall. At right in the background is Wheatland school where A. L. and Pearl Carter Whaley went to school and where Monette also went about 2 or 3 years. At the 1900 date, there was a post office, mail was brought to it from Duncanville where the Santa Fe railroad ran thru.
A. L. Whaley The big brown mustache	Permit to fill prescriptions in the drug department of the store. Information provided by Ted Tomlinson

Becoming “United”

 At the Uniting Conference in Dallas, Texas, April, 1968, a new Annual Conference was formed in North Texas including members, congregations, and ministers of the North Texas Conference of the former Methodist Episcopal Church South (1867-1939) and the former Methodist Church (1939-1968) of the South Central Jurisdiction; with certain members, congregations, and ministers of the West Texas Conference (1874-1939) organized out of the former Methodist Episcopal Church (1867-1939) and the former Methodist Church, Central Jurisdiction (1939-1968); and certain members, congregations, and ministers of the Oklahoma-Texas Conference of the Evangelical and United Brethren Church (1886-1968).

At a merger conference held in Dallas, Texas, in May, 1970, members, congregations, and ministers of the North Texas Conference; and members, congregations, and ministers of the West Texas Conference located within the geographical boundaries of the North Texas Conference became the North Texas Conference of the United Methodist Church.

As a result of this action, Wheatland Methodist Church became formally designated as Wheatland United Methodist Church.

The Wheatland Church in 1943 Photo provided by Marcia Pitt

 Wheatland Church’s Fight to Survive

The late 1990s was a difficult time for the church.  Attendance dropped to just a dozen members who attended service and the church was in danger of being permanently closed.

Thanks to the dedication of the Circuit Riders program Wheatland United Methodist Church was able to survive this difficult time. The following information is an excerpt from a 1998 article by John A. Lovelace of the North Texas United Methodist Reporter about the Circuit Riders program:

Every Sunday morning, members of University Park United Methodist Church pray, by name, for two or three people excused from their usual places such as the choir and Sunday School.

It’s been like that since June 14 and will be that way until next June. The absentees are University Park’s Circuit Riders, 13 men and three women serving a two-point circuit in southern Dallas County.

The Circuit Riders alternately preach, teach, pray, sing and do anything else needed every Sunday to help lead two of North Texas’ oldest and smallest local churches – Wheatland UMC and Hutchins UMC.

University Park Senior Minister Thomas Q. Robbins acknowledges that this takes a lot of leadership away from the 2,100-member church, including Minister of Pastoral Care Tom Peel, who directs the Circuit Riders project.

“But,” continues Dr. Robbins, “we want these sister churches to know that they are not alone and that we want them to grow and prosper.”

Dr. Robbins says the project grew out of an informal conversation he had with Dr. Leighton Farrell, whose Dallas South district includes both Wheatland and Hutchins churches. The district superintendent wanted ideas or, better, people who might bring new life and a new demonstration of the connectional system of these churches.

Dr. Robbins agreed to take it up with his staff. The following are the requirements they came up with that Circuit Riders are expected to meet:

-     Commit for one year.

-     Prepare and deliver at least one sermon each month.

-     Work under the direct supervision of Dr. Peel.

-     Use the lectionary of The United Methodist Church.

-     Take at least one course in University Park’s Cooper School of Discipleship both fall and spring.

-     Take your family and friends to participate in the worship service and activities of the church in which you preach.

-     Be willing to consult with Dr. Peel and accept critique, be willing to grow in proficiency in proclamation of the Good News.

-     Remain alert to ways that joint ministry may be possible and to learning from those we seek to serve.

-     Commit to pray for this ministry daily for one year.

Dr. Robbins said that in addition to the above requirements, each Circuit Rider has completed at least one 34 week session of Disciple Bible Study and said most have been on a three-day weekend Walk to Emmaus.

No Circuit Rider receives pay or expense reimbursement. The entire experience is his or her gift to fellow United Methodists.

In January of 1999, Dr. Peel was transferred to the C. C. Young Home (Methodist retirement home in Dallas), to serve as Chaplain, and retired from his service in June 1999. The “Circuit Riders” continued until June 1999; Rev. Gene Welborn, Associate Pastor at First United Methodist Church, Duncanville, served our church when an ordained pastor was needed for Weddings, Communion Services, Baptisms, etc.

The Circuit Riders program was able to keep Wheatland viable until 1999 at which time Pastor Kay Hord was called to minister at Wheatland. Under her leadership Wheatland has once again grown and is currently thriving. Sadly, the Hutchins United Methodist Church eventually closed.

Our Church Property

Wheatland Church, cemetery, and school are all that is left of the original farming community of Wheatland, Texas. The church’s property consists of approximately 10 acres with the church located in the northeast part of the lot.

Immediately north of the sanctuary is “Fellowship Hall.” Fellowship Hall, built in 1958, will comfortably hold 80 people. True to its name, luncheons, game nights, breakfasts, wedding receptions, and classes are regularly held there.

Just to the south of the sanctuary is the “The Cottage.” Originally built in 1947 as a parsonage, it was used for many years as a caretakers home, and is now used as a nursery and for classes.

Arbor Acre school is located in the southwest part of the property and is a private elementary school.

Though not part of the church’s property, Wheatland Cemetery is located west of the Sanctuary and is the final resting place for many of the areas pioneer families.

Wheatland’s Boundaries A=502 ft C=591 ft E=150 ft G=251 ft  I=202 ft K=101 ft M=193 ft   B=434 ft D=217 ft F=102 ft H=391 ft J=275 ft L=171 ft

Wheatland Today

Wheatland currently has about 100 members with about 50 to 60 worshipers attending the 10:30 a.m. service. For a church this size one might not expect much activity other than the weekly service. But at Wheatland, that is not the case at all! The current fellowship and activities are as follows:

Sundays:

   9:00 am -   Disciple 1, a 34-week overview of the Bible beginning with Genesis and continuing through Revelation, participants read approximately 80% of the Bible

   9:30 am -   Bible Study for all ages

10:30 am -   Worship Service

11:45 am -   Choir Practice

12:30 pm -   First Step Healthy Living Bible Study

Afternoon -   Doorstep visitation

Mondays:

   7:00 pm -   Disciple 4, a 32-week study prepared for graduates of Disciple I. The Writings of the Old Testament and the writings of the apostle John in the New Testament are studied

Wednesdays:

11:00 am -   Light Seekers at Fellowship Hall- men, women, singles, couples study books from the Bible

   7:00 pm -   Wheatlandettes at Fellowship Hall - women: single, married, divorced and widowed study Biblical topics

   7:00 pm -   Route 66’ers at Gene Hudson’s home - men, women, singles, and couples study Biblical topics

Monthly Activities:

1st Sunday - the Lord’s Supper during the 10:30 am service

4th Sunday - 11:45 am, Fellowship Dinner following worship

5th Sunday - 6:00 pm, Hymn Sing and Ice Cream Social

1st Wednesday - 10:00 am, Sunshine Fellowship, Games and Potluck

1st Saturday - 10:00 am, Quilting in Fellowship Hall

2nd Saturday - 9:00 am, United Methodist Men,Breakfast and Meeting

3rd Saturday - 12:30 pm, United Methodist Women, Lunch and Meeting

                        6:00 pm, Christian Happy Hour (CH2) a.k.a. game night

If you remember grandma’s cooking or if you enjoy restaurants like the “Cracker Barrel” or “The Black Eyed Pea” then you will really enjoy the 4th Sunday Fellowship Dinner. There are always plenty of delicious desserts.

During the year, Wheatland has the following special worship events:

·  Palm Sunday Service

·  Easter Sunrise Services

·  Christmas Eve Candlelight Service

Wheatland is also a fun church to be active in and here is a list of activities to prove it:

·  Valentines Sweetheart Dinner – the Methodist men treat the church’s women to a specially prepared elegant dinner in Fellowship Hall.

·  Easter Egg Hunt – held after worship on Palm Sunday.

·  Seder Meal – a powerful experience that remembers the Passover, held the Wednesday before Easter.

·  Annual Variety Show – previously a talent show, we had to change the name!

·  Fourth of July Parade – each year we participate in the Duncanville Fourth of July parade. We have won awards the last 2 years!

·  Vacation Bible School – always exciting for both the children and adults, held one week in the summer.

·  Pet Blessing in October –  pastor blesses all your favorites pets.

·   Christmas Season Celebration – we have White Elephant parties, children’s plays, and holiday dinners to celebrate this most important season.

Wheatland’s Award Winning Entry in the July 4th Parade

If the previous list of activities isn’t enough, there are also special activities, some planned in advance and others that occur as the opportunity arises. For example, the Mission Trip to New Orleans last year, hosting of the wonderful Christian Gospel group Runnin’ On Faith, the outing to be in the audience of Wheatland’s own Mark Miller during the taping of his radio program, and the overnight trip to see the “The Promise” in Glen Rose, Texas.

Variety Show – Wheatlandettes’ Dizzying Performance	Vacation Bible School

Wheatland’s Future

Here at Wheatland we love our “Old Country Church” dearly, but time has begun to take its toll. When our church was originally constructed in 1859, Wheatland was a small country settlement and the church could be seen from a distance. Now that southern Dallas County is getting crowded, the church is hard to find. In addition, our beautiful Sanctuary, Fellowship Hall, and Cottage continuously must be protected from the ravages of time and Texas’ weather.

In order to correct these problems and continue to serve the needs of the community, Wheatland started a three-phase capital campaign called “God’s Plans . . . Our Hands.” Phase I of this campaign, held from 2003 to 2006, was an $80,000 commitment to make Wheatland more visible to the community. The results of this campaign were the following:

·    Provided a clearer view of the church from Hampton Road by relocating the playground and fence to the west of the school

·    Built a driveway connecting Hampton Road to the church

·    Installed a new architecturally appropriate sign at Hampton

·    Constructed a gazebo for weddings and fellowship

Phase II of this campaign began in 2006 and continues through 2009 and focuses on improving our infrastructure and maintaining and upgrading our facilities. The goals of this campaign include the following:

·    Install new water and sewer lines

·    Improve sanctuary lighting

·    Repair the stained glass windows

·    Paint the church’s exterior and replace rotting wood

·    Bury the power lines

·    Provide new landscaping

Phase III of this campaign is in the future with the hope to construct a new educational building that compliments the architecture of our wonderful old “Country Church in the City.”

 Acknowledgements

We at Wheatland wish to express our sincere thanks to all persons who have contributed information and assistance in the preparation of this document and for the 160th celebration. Special thanks goes to the following people: Neal Davis, Irene Fleming, Zelma Huffstutler, Joan Smith King, Joyce Morris, Marcia Pitt, Dineen Majcher Smith, Jean Strasburger, Joan Swanson, Ted Tomlinson, and those who compiled the original booklet for the 150th anniversary.

In addition, thanks goes to those members of the 160th Anniversary Committee who worked so hard to bring about this event: Dot Casey, Jan Cavender, Edie Combs, Jim Daniels, Janice Fannin, Paul Foreman, Ivy Gandy, Cathie Green, Cathy Gruebbel, Ted Gruebbel, Pastor Kay Hord, Gene Hudson, Beverly Joyce, Brenda LaGard, Marie Libby, Laura Marceleno, James Marek, Kornellie Marek, Dick Merz, Joyce Merz, Kathy Priester, Lou Scott, Sally Smith, and Carolyn Spillers.