DUANE
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Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and here's how I'm gonna pass it along to you. Back in 1874, the Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio Railroad came through and surveyed the Luling townsite. Now, railroads in those days weren't just laying track, they were laying the bones of whole communities, and part of that meant the railroad deeded land for several church sites right then and there.
They were building more than a line. They were building a town. Then came 1877, and a man named Reverend Philip H.
Hensley gathered fourteen people together and organized the Luling Presbyterian Church. Fourteen souls. You remember that number, because it matters when we get to the end.
Those fourteen folks didn't have much of a building to speak of at first, but they had something. Five years later, in 1882, during the pastorate of Reverend A. H.
P. McCurdy, they put up a proper structure. One room, twenty-eight feet by forty-eight feet.
That's it. That's the whole church. One room.
But it was theirs. Now, every old building has its chapter of loss, and this one came in 1925, when the spire and the bell were removed during repairs. The bell gone quiet, the spire cut down from the sky.
Then the congregation came back swinging. Major remodeling followed, and in 1955 a Sunday School Annex was added. And then, 1962, the membership peaked at ninety-two.
Ninety-two members in a church that started with fourteen. That's the whole arc right there, fourteen people in a railroad town trusting that something worth building was worth staying for.
What the marker says
After surveying Luling townsite in 1874, the Galveston, Harrisburg & San Antonio Railroad deeded land for several church sites. In 1877 the Rev. Philip H. Hensley led 14 persons in organizing the Luling Presbyterian Church. Built in 1882, during the pastorate of the Rev. A. H. P. McCurdy, this structure originally had one 28' x 48' room. In 1925 the spire and bell were removed during repairs. after major remodeling the Sunday School Annex was added in 1955. The congregation reached in 1962 a membership peak of 92.