This congregation traces its history to 1898, when a group of Baptists, Disciples of Christ, Presbyterians, Quakers, and Methodists organized a Union Sunday School in the home of Willard James. Sometimes about 1900, the Methodists formed a separate fellowship.

The Rev. M.L. Lindsey, first pastor appointed to this congregation, also served other Methodist churches on the Houston circuit. He was assisted by several of the early families of the church, including those of W.P. Bowers, J.E. Cabiness, E.M. Morton, and T.G. Roberts. Lay members held worship services during the early years when the minister could not attend every sunday.

In 1903, land was secured from W.E. and R.M. Cash and from L.C. Luckel, and the foundation for a frame church building was laid. The Methodist sanctuary was completed in 1904, during the pastorate of the Rev. E.W. Potter, and was the first church building constructed in the town of Katy. It served the congregation until 1938, when a new sanctuary was built. The current structure was completed in 1961.

Throughout its history, the First United Methodist Church of Katy has provided significant service and leadership to the community. The congregation continues to reflect the ideals and traditions of its founders.

This community was founded in 1895 by a group of Friends (Quakers) led by F.J. Brown and T.H. Lewis. They acquired the land from J.C. League and named the settlement Friendswood.

From the very beginning, church and school were central to the life of this community. In 1900 an academy building was built on this site, with lumber from huge pine trees felled by the 1900 hurricane. The Friends Church, which until 1958 was the only church in the community, used the academy building for both worship and education. In the early years it provided the only secondary educational facilities for the surrounding area. The last school term was held in 1938, but the building continued to be used for worship until 1949 when it was replaced by a more modern structure.

The heritage of this community, received from its founders, is based on Christ's words, "Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you." John 15.14

Frontier trader and merchant; a Quaker, peaceable on troubled frontiers. With nephew C.F. Doan, came from Ohio and entered hides trade in Indian Territory, 1874-75. In April 1878 opened trading post at Western Cattle Trail crossing on Red River (12 mi. NE). C.F. Doan moved down that fall to run post. Jonathan Doan continued to trade on frontier. Doan's store and the family were famous and respected among the Indian, the cattlemen, and the frontiersmen.

Named for tall white mesa that was a landmark on Mackenzie Trail, surveyed in 1871 by U.S. Cavalry scouting for Indians on the frontier. Near the mesa in 1877, frontiersman Henry Clay Smith (1836-1912) built a two-story stone house for speculators Charles Tasker of Philadelphia and Lord Jamison of Ireland. This was the first permanent homestead in South Plains Region. Smith also brought in cattle for Tasker, and had to accept house as his compensation when Tasker failed in business. In the fall of 1877, Smith moved his family here; nearest neighbor was 50 miles east. The home became a way-station for prospectors, and Smith encouraged many settlers such as Paris Cox, the Quaker founder of Estacado (22 miles West). Mount Blanco Post Office opened in September 1879, with Mrs. Smith (Elizabeth Boyle, 1848-1925) as postmaster. In 1886, Smith led in organizing Crosby County. This area prospered, and by 1890 had a school. Farming largely replaced ranching after 1900. Post office closed in 1916. School consolidated with Crosbyton in 1949. Smith's stone house (1 mile North) burned in 1952. Village of Mount Blanco (4 miles northeast) lost its last store about 1956, its church in 1965. Only a cotton gin and clubhouse now (1975) remain as public buildings in Mount Blanco.

The early Gonzales County settlement of Pilgrim was named in honor of Thomas J. Pilgrim, a noted area educator who had received a Republic of Texas land grant here in 1838. In 1881 residents of the pioneer community established a Union Sunday School in a nearby schoolhouse (1.5 miles S). Early members of the congregation represented the Presbyterian, Baptist, Methodist and Quaker faiths.

On November 23, 1883, several Union Church members formed this congregation under the direction of the Rev. J.J. Hodges of Wrightsboro. Begun as a Cumberland Presbyterian Fellowship with the congregational name of Pilgrim Lake, it was an early member of the Guadalupe Presbytery of San Antonio and Austin.

A sanctuary was built here in 1886 on land donated by Crawford Burnett. Church members were assisted by local residents in construction and furnishing the building, which became the site of many early camp meetings and summer revivals.

Despite a declining area population, the Pilgrim Presbyterian Church has remained active and now serves as a focal point of the surrounding rural region and as a reminder of the pioneer settlers whose descendants still live here.

Given to city 1929 in memory of pioneer William Penn Ruddick, farmer and dairyman, and Mrs. Ruddick. History was made here even before Ruddick arrived, however. In 1840 Colonel John Henry Moore and 90 Indian fighters wiped out a Comanche village on the Colorado nearby. The creek that runs through the park was named for Chief Lone Wolf of the Kiowa Indians, who camped along the creek banks. In 1880 Co. B of the Frontier Battalion, under Captain Sam McMurry, was ordered here to combat Indian attacks. With the coming of the Texas & Pacific Railroad in 1881, immigrants began to flood the area. W.P. Ruddick (1851-1914) and his wife Sarah (Hutchens) moved from Oregon and set up housekeeping in a half-dugout until lumber could be shipped from Fort Worth. Ruddick, a Quaker, was one of the first in Mitchell County to raise cotton. He also planted an orchard and operated a dairy, for which he transported the first registered Jersey and Hereford cattle into the county. He ranched and drilled water wells for his neighbors as well as himself. Soon after the donation of the original 20-acre park by Ruddick's heirs, an amphitheater and stage were built here. The park now contains 138 acres.

Statesman - businessman who contributed talent and time to establish and maintain Texas Independence.

A Quaker; born in Pennsylvania. Moved to Texas 1830. Set up mercantile house and shipping business in Matagorda. Struggled against anti-Texas policies of Santa Anna's dictatorship in Mexico. Won election as one of Matagorda delegates to the 1836 convention in Washington on the Brazos. Signed Texas Declaration of Independence. In first regular administration of Republic of Texas, became Secretary of the Navy in cabinet of President Sam Houston in October 1836.

By March 1837 Mexican blockaders were trying to reduce Texas to starvation by capturing shipments including those of the U.S.A. -- on Gulf of Mexico.

Secretary Fisher went to sea with the Texas Navy to attack Mexican coast and draw blockaders away from ports of Galveston, Matagorda, and Velasco. Texas captured territory and ships of the enemy; but later accidents and storms destroyed the Navy and prizes.

In late 1837 Secretary Fisher resigned. Back in Matagorda he died as result of a shooting in 1839. He and his wife had four children. Several leaders in state government have come from this family. In 1876 a new county was named in honor of S. Rhoads Fisher.

A town founded in 1879 by a colony of English Quakers under the leadership of Isaac Paris Cox who purchased for them 82 sections of land. The town, first named Marietta in honor of Mary Cox, wife of the leader, was renamed Estacado in 1886 when Crosby County was organized. By 1893 the colony had disintegrated. Moved in 1895 to Galveston County.

In November 1847, James Ferguson, a land speculator, bought 1,600 acres including this site and built a mill. He successfully operated it for several years, employing five workers by 1852. He lost the property in a legal judgement, and it changed ownership several times in the next seventeen years. Charles E. Ford, a New England Quaker, brought his family to Cherokee County in 1869 and purchased the mill with 335 acres of creek bottom land for $442.50. An entrepreneur and inventor, Ford modernized the mill and reopened it in 1872 to grind corn, saw lumber and repair machinery. The mill's value by 1880 was $1,250. "Miller" Ford's fortune expanded to include 14 cotton gins and grist mills in the county. His son continued the mill's operation until 1917. All that remains is the mill pond and vestiges of the mill race.

The trading village of Salem was founded in 1835 by Seth Swift. A Quaker and whaling merchant, Swift had moved to this area from Massachusetts with his wife, Lydia, and six children. When Lydia died about 1852, Swift set aside an acre of land for a cemetery. Upon his death in 1869, Swift was buried beside his wife in a pink marble casket he had brought from Massachusetts. Several other members of the community are believed to be interred in the cemetery, as well. Lost to forest overgrowth for many years, the graveyard has been restored.