DUANE
Duane's take
Now, I'm gonna tell you this one straight from the official marker, the way it was recorded — so settle in, because this story's got storms, stone, and some real stubborn faith. This is the Church of the Visitation, Falls County. German natives who had first put down roots in Colorado County packed up again in 1879, hunting better land.
They found what they were looking for right here — liked the soil, liked the location — and they didn't waste a minute. They pooled together and purchased a hundred acres, right then and there, for a church and a school. Community first.
That was always the plan. The earliest Mass was said in 1882, in the home of the first settler, a man named Theodore Rabroker. No building yet, just a family's home and the faithful gathered inside it.
Now, they got to work, and by February of 1884 they had a church building — completed, standing, done. And then came May. A terrible storm came through and destroyed it.
Just like that. Everything they'd built. Gone.
Here's where this congregation shows you something about itself: by July, they had rebuilt it. That's not a typo. February it's finished, May it's destroyed, July it's standing again.
You do the storytelling math on that kind of determination. Word got around, as word does, and large numbers of German-American Catholic families moved into the area. The town of Westphalia — and the marker tells us this plainly — was named after the province from which those early settlers came.
Visiting priests served the congregation, year after year, until 1893, when the Reverend Michael Heintzelmann was assigned as the permanent pastor. He led that congregation for the next thirty-six years. Thirty-six years.
Then in 1895, with a man named A. Fuchs of Waco serving as both designer and contractor, they set out to build the church that stands today. And they didn't cut corners on the materials.
The stones were shipped by railroad all the way from Muldoon, Texas, to Lott — that's eight miles to the northeast of here — and then hauled the rest of the way by wagon. Every stone made that journey. The central church area forms a Latin cross.
And here's a detail that tells you these builders had been paying attention to Texas weather — they built six inches of sway right into the bell towers. Six inches. For safety in storms.
They remembered 1884. They weren't going to forget it. The original-design stained glass windows inside are described as very rare and priceless.
And the building itself is one of the largest wooden church structures in the entire state of Texas. Hauled in by wagon, built by hand, twice in some ways, shaped like a cross, built to sway but never to fall. That church has been standing its ground in Falls County ever since.
What the marker says
German natives who settled originally in Colorado County came here in 1879 looking for better land. Pleased with the soil and location, they brought their families and immediately purchased 100 acres for a church and school. The earliest Mass was said in 1882 in the home of the first settler, Theodore Rabroker. The original church building, completed in February 1884, was destroyed the following May by a terrible storm. The congregation rebuilt the structure by July. Large numbers of German-American Catholic families moved into the area. Westphalia was named after the province from which the early settlers came. Visiting priests served until 1893 when the Rev. Michael Heintzelmann was assigned as the permanent pastor. He led the congregation for the next 36 years. In 1895, with A. Fuchs of Waco as the designer and contractor, the present church house was completed. The stones were shipped by railroad from Muldoon, Texas, to Lott (8 mi. NE) and then hauled here by wagon. The central church area forms a Latin cross. For safety in storms, six inches of sway was built into the bell towers. The original-design stained glass windows are very rare and priceless. This is one of the largest wooden church buildings in the state.