DUANE
Duane's take
The marker tells it this way, and I'm just passin' it along. Way out in Luling, in the young heart of Caldwell County, stands what the record calls the town's very first church building — the Episcopal Church of the Annunciation. And the story of how it got started is the kind of thing you couldn't make up if you tried.
Luling itself was barely eight months old when the Right Reverend Robert W. B. Elliott came through.
Now, Reverend Elliott was the first bishop of the missionary district of western Texas, and he was en route to his see city when he stopped in Luling on December 20th, 1874. No church in town, no chapel, no hall — so the man held his original service in the entire district right there in a Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio Railway passenger car. A moving congregation, you might say, though it wasn't moving at the time.
Early in 1875, the Reverend Wallace Carnahan followed, preachin' to whoever would listen in this raw little town still findin' its footing. Then, in February of 1876, the Reverend Nelson Ayres arrived as vicar. And here's the part that stops you cold.
Reverend Ayres didn't wait on a building committee. He didn't wait on a donor or a contractor. He picked up his tools and built the chapel with his own hands.
Come April 15th, 1877, he conducted the first service inside the very walls he had laid himself. The church was remodeled in 1938, and again in 1965 — but those walls Ayres raised with his own labor are still at the heart of it. Started in a railcar, finished by one man's hands.
Luling's first church didn't just get built. It got willed into existence.
What the marker says
Luling's first church building. The Rt. Rev. Robert W. B. Elliott (1840-87), first bishop, missionary district of western Texas, enroute to his see city, held his original service in the district in a Galveston, Harrisburg & San Antonio Railway passenger car in Luling on Dec. 20, 1874, eight months after town's founding. Early in 1875, the Rev. Wallace Carnahan preached here. The rev. Nelson Ayres arrived as vicar in Feb. 1876 and began to build this chapel with his own hands, conducting first service in it on April 15, 1877. Church was remodeled in 1938 and 1965.