Bellville Concordia

Duane's take

Here's how the marker tells it, and I'm taking it from there. Now, this one comes out of Austin County, and it's the kind of story that starts small, in somebody's living room, and ends up lasting longer than just about anything around it. The Bellville Concordia.

A singing society. And before you think that sounds like a quiet little footnote in Texas history, you stick with me. We're going back to 1860.

Out at a place called Piney, three and a half miles east of Bellville, a man by the name of Fritz Schlecht opened up his home. And in that home, a group of men decided they were going to sing together. Fritz Brandes was there.

Heinrich and Gustav Koch. Joseph and Theo Menke. Herman Mueller.

Fritz Schultz. And directing the whole thing, Emil Koch. Seven members and a director, gathered in a home, starting something.

That name, Bellville Concordia, wouldn't come along until 1938, but the society itself, that goes all the way back to that evening in Fritz Schlecht's house. Then comes 1877. The group builds a hall.

A real hall, a proper place to gather and raise their voices. And that hall stands, until it doesn't. Because 1900 brings a storm, and that storm wrecks it.

Now here is where the story turns, because most things that get wrecked by a storm in 1900 just stay wrecked. But not this one. That hall, what remained of it, was moved.

Moved here, to Bellville, and rebuilt that same year. The land to do it on was given by a man named Henry Strauss. Think about that for a moment.

A singing society born in someone's front room, a hall hammered up and then hammered down by weather, hauled to new ground, put back together, and still carrying the name it finally chose for itself in 1938. Some things just refuse to be quiet.

What the marker says

(Name adopted in 1938) Singing society organized in home of Fritz Schlecht, at Piney (3.5 mi. E), 1860. Members: Fritz Brandes, Heinrich and Gustav Koch, Joseph and Theo Menke, Herman Mueller, Fritz Schultz. Emil Koch, director. Hall (built 1877), wrecked by 1900 storm, was moved here, rebuilt same year. Land given by Henry Strauss. (1968)