Isaac B. Webb was born on June 4, 1802 in Sullivan County, Tennessee. He married Mary H. Hughes on April 8, 1835. In January 1844, Colonel Webb moved his family to the huge land grant known as Peter's Colony in the Republic of Texas. Shortly thereafter, he appealed to a friend to send them a preacher. Reverend Thomas Brown arrived in March, "stayed" the night with Colonel Webb and preached the first sermon in the Colony on March 19, 1844 in the cabin of William B. Cochran.
In the spring of 1845, Sam Shook was sent as a Missionary. He preached his first sermon at Colonel Webb's cabin on May 5, 1845 and organized a society consisting of five members. The first building of the pioneer church a hewed log house 18 feet square, was "put up" in the spring of 1846. The members gave it the name of Webb's Chapel. In 1887, a frame church building was erected on Webb Chapel Road near the present Webbs Chapel Cemetery in the heart of the Colony.
Following a shift in the focal point of the Colony to near the present old downtown Farmers Branch, the church moved to its current location in 1903. At that time a small, but beautiful, white frame church was erected at the corner of Valley View Lane and Goodland Street.
The present church building was erected in 1955, the north and south educational wings were added to Fellowship hall and connected to the sanctuary in 1964.
The original Fellowship Classroom was renovated and became Ollie Bullock Memorial Chapel in 1970. The Field Activities Center was build in 1975, then in 1980 the chancel area of the sanctuary was given a major "face-lift" and a beautiful new pipe organ was installed. In 1998, our antiquated, circa 1964, (chilled water and boiler) air conditioning and heating system was replaced by area controlled heating and air conditioning units.
In 1972 Webb Chapel United Methodist Church was designated a historical landmark by the State of Texas.
The church serves the Webb Chapel congregation which numbers nearly 2oo members as of this date. According to our membership records, Sue Crumley who passed away in 2005 had been a member longer than any others on our roll.
The Reverend Bill Stinson was the pastor when the present sanctuary was built. He served our congregation from 1951-1956.
Ministers who have been assigned to our church since then are as follows:
- 1956-1957 — Reverend James W. Westbrook
- 1957-1961 — Reverend Richard T. Perry
- 1961-1966 — Reverend Edward C. Blythe, Jr.
- 1966-1969 — Reverend Fred Mooring
- 1969-1971 — Reverend John J. Rasmussen, Jr.
- 1971-1981 — Reverend Gene Gordon
- 1981-1982 — Reverend David Kittrell
- 1982-1984 — Reverend James Gatlin
- 1984-1986 — Reverend J.B. Sharp
- 1986-1997 — Reverend Joe D. Shafer
- 1997-2000 — Reverend Elaine Bussey
- 2000-Present — Reverend Joyce Cravens