Prince Memorial CME Church

Prince Memorial CME Church. . , In the 1840s and 1850s, the Methodist Church in America experienced several splits over the slavery question. When the newly formed Methodist Episcopal Church, South, affirmed its commitment to race-based chattel slavery, many African Americans who had found solace in that church left to form their own denomination, named the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church (formerly “Colored Methodist Episcopal Church.”) The Reverend R.A. Eddleman (1812-1891), the first leader of the new congregation in Weatherford, named the church after the Reverend A. Bartlett Prince (1820-1905), a charter member and presiding elder of the West Texas Conference. Other charter members included Henry Johnson, Emily Washington, Clarissa Mosley, Lucy A. Norton, Samuel Washington, James Rachel, America Rachel and George Dawson. Henry Johnson was appointed class leader and Stephen Carter and Joseph Davis, stewards. Prince Memorial CME Church is one of the earliest established CME churches in the state, the others being Allen Chapel in Fort Worth and Reedy Chapel in Galveston. , In 1871, the Prince Memorial CME church building was constructed in Weatherford at West Oak Street between Brazos and Lamar under the leadership of Bishop Miles. According to church records, the congregation has been meeting in the same location since its founding. The 1871 building was wood frame construction and held about 250 people. In its earliest days, the building served the black community as a church. For more than 150 years, Prince Memorial CME Church has been an enduring and uplifting presence for the Weatherford community.