In the 1840s and 1850s, the Methodist Church in America experienced several splits over slavery. After the newly formed Methodist Episcopal Church, South, affirmed its commitment to race-based chattel slavery, many African Americans who had found solace in that church left to form their own denomination, the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, formerly the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church. In Weatherford, the Reverend R.A. Eddleman, who lived from 1812 to 1891, led the new congregation and named it after the Reverend A. Bartlett Prince, who lived from 1820 to 1905, a charter member and presiding elder of the West Texas Conference. Other charter members included Henry Johnson, Emily Washington, Clarissa Mosley, Lucy A. Norton, Samuel Washington, James Rachel, America Rachel, and George Dawson. Henry Johnson was appointed class leader, and Stephen Carter and Joseph Davis were appointed stewards. Prince Memorial CME Church was among the earliest established Christian Methodist Episcopal churches in Texas, along with Allen Chapel in Fort Worth and Reedy Chapel in Galveston. In 1871, under the leadership of Bishop Miles, its building was constructed in Weatherford on West Oak Street between Brazos and Lamar. According to church records, the congregation has met in the same location since its founding. The 1871 wood-frame building held about 250 people, served the Black community as a church in its earliest days, and for more than 150 years Prince Memorial CME Church has remained an enduring and uplifting presence in Weatherford.