Church of Our Merciful Saviour

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll pass it along just as it stands. Way out in Kaufman County, there's a little church that carries a whole lot of history in its walls, and those walls, friend, are something to see. Rural Gothic architecture, they call it.

The kind of lines that reach upward like the building itself has somewhere to be. Now the parish that called this place home was formed back in 1883, which means for fifteen years a congregation was holding together without a permanent home of their own. Then in 1898, the site was given; and still the church didn't rise overnight.

It took until 1909 for the building to finally go up, and when it did, it went up under the lead of Mr. and Mrs. Woodson Nash. You notice I said both of them.

The marker makes a point of that, and so will I. When the work was done, the church wasn't quietly opened on some unremarkable Tuesday. It was consecrated (set apart, made holy in a formal ceremony) on May 2, 1909.

And the man who did the consecrating was no ordinary guest. The Rt. Rev.

A. C. Garrett, first bishop of the Missionary District of Northern Texas.

The first. So you've got a congregation that had been waitin' since 1883, a site finally secured in 1898, a building raised in 1909, and the very first bishop of his district standing there to say: this is a house of worship. Some things are worth the wait.

What the marker says

Rural Gothic architecture. In parish formed 1883. Site given 1898; built 1909 under lead of Mr. and Mrs. Woodson Nash. Consecrated May 2, 1909, by The Rt. Rev. A. C. Garrett, first bishop of Missionary District of Northern Texas. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1967