First United Methodist Church

First United Methodist Church was erected in 1966 in the northwest corner of the B.F. Hawkins Survey. Hawkins, among the original settlers in the area, became the first Clerk of Ellis County Courts, and his father, William Alden Hawkins, who settled at Hawkins Spring, was Ellis County's first Chief Justice. The entire Hawkins family became deeply involved in establishing Methodism on the wild and vast Texas prairie they helped settle and began to call home. George L. Hopper and his daughters, Frances Countryman and Ella Rosenfield, donated two acres of land for the church site in memory of their beloved wife and mother, Juanita Hawkins Hopper. Hopper lived on and farmed the land at that time. The Hopper residence, a short distance east of the church site, was built by Mrs. Hopper's uncle Hal Hawkins for his bride, Emma Wheeler, in 1898. The church continued to grow and prosper in this location and in its 150th year claimed a membership of 1,005.

Midlothian, Texas · United States