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The Rev. Lamb Trimble, a Methodist circuit rider, organized this church at Red Gap (two miles west) in 1880. The four charter members met in the home of M.V. Mitchell, a sheep rancher. The congregation moved to Cisco one year later when the city was founded. Services were held in the schoolhouse until 1883 when the members built a sanctuary on this site. A company purchasing right of way property for the railroad donated the land. An 1889 building program, completed during the pastorate of the Rev. T.C. Ragsdale, doubled the size of the structure and added a parsonage. Both buildings were destroyed in 1893 when a tornado struck Cisco killing 23 people and injuring 93 others. Members formed a rebuilding committee and a larger sanctuary and parsonage were constructed, complete with electric lighting. The population growth of Cisco during the Eastland County oil boom made the sanctuary obsolete, and in 1919 work began on a new church building. The Rev. Lewis N. Stuckey conducted the first services when the edifice was dedicated late in 1920. On two separate occasions Cisco headed a district for the Central Texas Methodist Conference until consolidation with Brownwood in 1974. (1980) |
