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About an hour north of Dallas is the small and growing town of Van Alstyne, Texas and just east of town on the edge of town is the small rural unincorporated community of Cannon, Texas. There isn’t much left of the original town. All that’s left is the Methodist Church of Cannon. The old hotel that looked like it was about to fall in on itself was recently torn down. Today, its mostly a mixture of old and new homes sitting on large tracts of land.
Methodist Church of Cannon
The Methodist Church of Cannon was organized in 1896 by the Rev. Morbid and the Jones Brothers ministers. The current church building (not sure if this is the original church) sits on the site where a church building was built and the first services were held in 1887.
The church congregation had several local prominent members that included Rev. Pinkney Shaw, C. H. Hill and Frank Mann.
Rev. Bescher Airhart Served the church as pastor for years and during his time serving the church had a singing convention sponsored by Mann family. The group had 40 or 50 local singers and other good singers.
By 1974, Arnold Wiggins was the only parishioner left and he would go each Sunday morning for an hour of prayer and meditation.
The inactive members returned to church in 1976 after Channel 11, Dallas, Texas interviewed Mr. Wiggins.
From there the history ends. The church hasn’t been used in years. The deed shows that the church and property is stilled owned by the congregation and that deed hasn’t changed hands since 1900!
I passed by the church 6+ years ago when my wife and I were exploring the area and looking to purchase land. As we passed by, there was sign out front that said the pews were for sale. During that time the church looked like it hadn’t been used in years.
I’d loved to document the rest of the history of this old church. I will be adding its story to VanishingTexas.net at some point. If you know anything more please contact me or comment below.
Source: – Grayson County TXGenWeb (usgenwebsites.org)
Current Condition
It looks better on the outside. I didn’t go inside. I shot some pictures from the door. The roof has a many large holes in it and the interior is in bad shape. With prices of land going up and those looking to move to the area, I don’t see this old church lasting much longer.
About the Images
The images were shot on a late gloomy morning. I used my Sony a6000 and my Sony SELP18105G E PZ 18-105mm F4 G OSS lens. The images were then edited with Adobe Lightroom CC and Topaz Labs A.I. Clear and Topaz Labs Denoise AI and Topaz Labs Sharpen AI and DXO NIK Collection
About James
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