Goldthwaite Methodists trace their history to the mid 1850s, when circuit-riding preachers traveled to the area to minister to barely permanent settlers. The pioneers gathered for services in private homes, outdoors, or in a one-room schoolhouse, and for a time they were led by the Rev. H. Childress, known as the "bear-hunting preacher" because he carried firearms for protection while traveling. In 1885, the Santa Fe Railway founded the town of Goldthwaite, and the town's railroad crew and passengers created a ready market for goods and services that attracted new residents, who organized a local congregation of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, that year. The Rev. C. V. Oswalt was the first pastor, and within two years the congregation completed its first church building, a wood-frame structure. Since then, the congregation has built several progressively larger church buildings to accommodate its growth. Because of denominational mergers, the congregation changed its name to the First Methodist Church in 1939 and to the United Methodist Church in 1968. Active in missionary and social service from its beginning, the First Methodist Church remains an important part of the community's religious life.