In 1854 John Wiemers, a German by birth, came to New Fountain, near the present town of Hondo. There he settled, bought land, and married.
 
At one of the early church services, held under the shade of this live oak by the Reverend F. A. Shaper, a Methodist minister who had moved to New Fountain in 1858, John Wiemers was converted. At the next night's services his wife, too, was converted. They became charter members of the Methodist Episcopal Church South at New Fountain.
 
Weather permitting, many of the pioneers' summer and mid-week prayer meetings were held under the shade of this beautiful oak. It still stands near the site of John Wiemers' house.
 
In 1862, the New Fountain Methodist Church was built on land donated by the Wiemers, well within sight of the oak under which the two had been converted.