All Saints' Episcopal Church

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and here's how I'm passing it along to you. Way down in Cameron County, in the town of San Benito, there's a little Episcopal congregation with roots that run deep into the South Texas soil. Deep, and stubborn, and patient, the way things have to be down here.

Let me tell you how it grew. Episcopalians in the area were already gathering in Brownsville as far back as 1851. But San Benito was another matter.

Out here, in those early days, you didn't wait for a proper church building to fall out of the sky. You made do. Citizens like Nettie G.

King and Will Hinkly organized the first services whenever they could find two things at once: a minister willing to show up, and a space willing to hold them. Now that sounds simple enough until you try it. The retired Reverend William Henry Morrison stepped into that gap.

He held services in the King building, in the early Methodist Church, and in other locations besides. Wherever there was room, the congregation gathered. They had a choir.

They had the Altar Guild. They had the Ladies' Guild. And those church women, well, they went to work raising money for a building of their own.

By 1912, that building was completed right here on this very site. Then the year 1933 arrived, and with it, a storm that heavily damaged everything they had built. Now, some congregations might have read that as a sign to quit.

This one read it differently. By 1935, the church was rebuilt. In the decades that followed, the parish hall became a gathering place for civic and social occasions, well used from the 1950s onward.

Today, All Saints' Episcopal Church carries on in the traditions of its founders. The people who hunted down a minister and borrowed a room and sang in someone else's building. Turns out that kind of foundation holds up just fine, even against a storm.

What the marker says

Early area Episcopalians worshiped at Brownsville beginning in 1851. The first services in San Benito were organized by citizens such as Nettie G. King and Will Hinkly whenever a minister and space could be found. The retired Rev. William Henry Morrison first held services in the King building and in the early Methodist Church as well as other locations. Early church groups included the choir, the Altar Guild and the Ladies' Guild. Church women worked to raise money for a building, which was completed on this site in 1912. Heavily damaged by a storm in 1933, the church was rebuilt in 1935. The parish hall was used frequently for civic and social occasions from the 1950s. All Saints' Episcopal Church continues in the traditions of its founders. (2000)