This Week in Texas Methodist History  March 24

Mt. Zion MEC Cornerstone Laid in Brenham  1879

The church is closed now, but the building still stands on the west side of Brenham near Blinn College.  

The cornerstone for the building was laid November 28, 1879, under the direction of its pastor, Spencer Hardwell.  Hardwell was one of the most prominent members of the conference having served Wesley in Austin and would leave Brenham for his next appointment, Mt. Vernon in Houston.  Also in attendance was Benjamin Watrous, a delegate to the Texas Constitutional Convention of 1869 and one of five African American signers of that constitution.  He was also a former Presiding Elder of the district in which the church was located.  Hardwell had also been at the constitutional convention, but as a teller rather than a delegate.  

The proposed building was to be 56 feet by 34 feet on a lot that measured 75 feet by 65 feet.  The estimated cost of the building was to be $125.   A collection of $23.50 was taken on the day of the cornerstone laying.   Hardwell described the lot as the prettiest on the west side of Brenham.  

Within a few months construction crews for the Gulf Coast Santa Fe Railroad would lay tracks two blocks east of the church lot.  The coming of the railroad meant increased prosperity, jobs, and population.  Mt. Zion thrived as a result.  

Hardwell's next appointment was to Mt. Vernon and then to Richmond.  He attended the 1883 Annual Conference in Paris but became ill there.  He made it home to Richmond where he died Dec. 6, 1883. His grave is not in a cemetery but behind a private residence in Richmon,