History of Borger's First Church
75th Anniversary Program First United Methodist Church 1926-2001

The Dixon Creek Oil Company struck oil in Hutchinson County Texas in early 1926 and the “Big Borger Boom” was underway. Ace Borger arrived in this area in January of 1926; he bought 240 acres from John Weatherly for the unheard of sum of fifty dollars an acre. This acreage became the original town site of Borger.

     In the next 90 days 50,000 people flocked into Borger. A raw oilfield town with no churches but lots of crime, prostitution, gambling, and bootlegging. You name it and it was here.

     Rev. W. M. Lane, presiding Methodist Bishop of the Amarillo District, came to Borger to see for himself the conditions under which sin was flourishing. He immediately sent Rev. Orion W. Carter, a 23 year old Southern Methodist University graduate, to Borger to establish a church in this “ruff and tumble” town.

     His first church service was conducted in the Herring & Young Grocery Store on the second Sunday in June. The church was formally organized on July 3, 1926 in a hastily constructed tabernacle. By November there were fifty-four members. It has been said that the young Rev. Carter slept on the stacks of lumber with a shotgun in hand to protect it from thieves.

     Methodist Episcopal Church South, as it was first known, received $464.29 from Polk Street Methodist Church of Amarillo. This was their only outside source of funding. The original building was expanded in 1929. The white stucco church on the corner of 2nd and Hedgecoke was built in 1930 and remodeled in 1948. The present church building at 2nd and McGee was constructed in 1952. The educational wing was added in 1963, and the activity building opened in 1995.

     The congregation has had three names over its 75 years: Methodist Episcopal Church South or M. E. Church (1926), First Methodist Church (1939), and First United Methodist Church (1968).

     From the beginning, this congregation has provided a sanctuary to fulfill the spiritual needs of its members. For seven and one half decades worship, baptisms, weddings, christenings, and funerals have continued to mark important events for the community. The custodians of church history have carefully preserved records of these events.