Sherman TX...

On this baking hot day, I had to deliver to Sherman, TX... a mere 97 miles from my house, the seat of Grayson County. Aproximately 38,000 people live in this sleepy town...

First of all, I should apologize... usually when I play travel blogger, it's someplace where I've actually had a little bit of time to find something to photograph. Not today, as I was on a hot run, and had to get back to Dallas. I only had time for a few quick pics... and the sun was beating down making everything a bit overexposed.

First of all, a few lots down from my delivery, I saw this, and my regs know how I am about run-down and/or abandoned houses... so here's the obligatory shot of one...

And, of course, my second weakness, old churches...

You can see some info on the Historic Marker below...

although, now that I've gotten home and done a bit of research, I should point out a correction to the above marker.

The first line of the marker has one flaw... if the church was organized in 1875, it was not organized as the "Christian Methodist Episcopal Church" It would have been the "Colored Methodist Episcopal Church." The name would have been changed from Colored to Christian in the mid-1950's. The question is whether this was an oversight, a lazy researcher at the historic society, or a slight glossing over of history.

If you have no interest in church politics, and if you don't I can't blame you-they can be awfully messy - you might want to skip this part. And just for the record, I HAD to research it, as the name Christian Methodist Episcopal Church seemed a little strange and redundant to me. The first thought that came to my head was something along the lines of, "As opposed to the Buddist Baptist Catholics, no doubt... then I HAD to look it up... sorry if I'm boring you, but now I have all this info and nothing to do with it... so I'm dumping it on you...

What follows is a major simplification of the info I can find...

First, it's fairly common knowledge that the Episcopal church broke from the Anglican (or Church of England) in America at about the time of the American Revolution.

The Methodist movement, what most modern people would now call a Charismatic or Evangelical movement, although I think technically it isn't... took place within the church and eventually built their own Temples and called themselves the Methodist Episcopalian Church. Well, the ones in America did... I'm not concerning myself with anything else at the moment. I should also point out that several Methodist groups formed together and eventually became the United Methodist Church here in the states. But before that happened...

The Methodist Episcopalian Church (lets call them the MEC) was very very progressive for it's time. There were lots of adherents, although only about 1 in 5 were actual members. They had Reverends, but also lay preachers. And, what would have then been considered revolutionary, women and slaves were allowed to stand up and speak in church, and often lead meetings.

After the Civil War, the Colored Methodist Episcopalian Church (CMEC) was formed by adherents who didn't want to be overshadowd by the white leadership of the MEC. In the 1950's, as mentioned before, the word colored was replaced with Christian.

And now that I have all THAT out of my system, I should also mention that the church, or at least the historic building that the church is in, is for sale...

Now, see what a little random curiosity can lead to?

If that isn't an arguement for walking around with blinders on and minding your own darned business, I don't know what is... I now have all this information jammed in my head, and no real use for it.

If however, you'd like to know more about Sherman TX, here's a link to the wikipedia page...

and here's a wikipedia link to the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church article (and I hope my poor fingers never have to type THAT again...)

and since racial issues are running through the post, here's the Handbook of Texas online link to the Sherman Texas Race Riots of 1930 which is a fascinating read...