Christ Church

Duane's take

The way this marker tells it, here's the story of Christ Church in San Augustine County. Back in 1848, a woman named Mrs. J.

Pinckney Henderson had something on her mind. Her husband had just finished serving as the first Governor of the State of Texas, holding that office from 1846 to 1847, and she turned her attention to matters of faith. She sent out a plea, a direct request, for a missionary to come to East Texas.

The man who answered that call was Reverend Henry Samson. He came, and he founded what this marker calls the East Texas mother church. That was 1848.

Three years later, in 1851, they raised an original brick building to give the congregation a proper home. Now, that building did not last forever in its original form, but some of what was inside it did. The pews and the rails from that first building still sit in the church today.

Carried forward. Not replaced. In 1870, a new structure went up, and this is the one worth paying attention to, a strongly braced post and beam construction that has held its ground ever since.

Then in 1891, a Gothic bell tower was added, rising up above it all. But the story doesn't stop with the building. There was a rector named Reverend George L.

Crocket who served that church for forty-one years. Forty-one years. During that time he didn't just tend to his congregation.

He picked up tools and made carvings inside the church, left his mark in the wood itself. And he wrote a book called Two Centuries in East Texas. A man who shaped the building and then sat down to write the history of the land around it.

That is a particular kind of devotion. Christ Church in San Augustine, founded on a woman's plea, built in brick, rebuilt in post and beam, adorned with a Gothic tower, and tended for four decades by a man who carved his care right into the walls.

What the marker says

East Texas mother church. Founded 1848 by Rev. Henry Samson, missionary sent on plea of Mrs. J. Pinckney Henderson, wife of first (1846-1847) Governor of State of Texas. Original brick building, 1851. This strongly braced post and beam structure built 1870. Gothic bell tower added 1891. Has pews and rails from first building. Rev. Geo. L. Crocket, rector 41 years, made carvings in church; wrote "Two Centuries in East Texas." Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1965