Grace Episcopal Church

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm just along for the ride. Way down in DeWitt County, there stands a little Episcopal church with a story bigger than its walls have any right to hold. Grace Episcopal Church, they call it, and the story starts in 1874, when the congregation first organized.

Now, the first chapel they worshipped in didn't even begin its life there. It was moved in from Port Lavaca, which tells you something about the kind of folks these were. Resourceful.

Patient. The kind who know that a good thing is worth hauling down the road. They eventually built fresh, and the present church went up in 1889.

It was dedicated on May 25, 1890, with the Reverend George Hinson serving as rector. Gothic architecture, clapboard siding on the outside, walnut on the inside, and a cedar shingle roof overhead. Modest in its bones, but built to last.

Now, here's where the story takes a turn that'll make you set down your coffee. Among the rectors who served this small-town Texas congregation was a man named Hudson Stuck, who held the post from 1892 to 1894. Stuck was a reformer.

He worked on child labor laws. And somewhere between leaving this pulpit and whatever came next, he went and conquered Mount McKinley. Mount McKinley.

From a clapboard church in DeWitt County to the highest peak in North America. The marker doesn't explain how a man gets from one to the other, and maybe that's the point. Some people are just built for more ground than most of us can see.

Then there was Everett H. Jones, rector from 1927 to 1930, who later rose to become the fourth bishop of the Diocese of West Texas. Two rectors.

One mountaintop. One bishop's seat. And a cedar-shingled roof that watched it all come and go.

Grace Episcopal Church. Still standing.

What the marker says

Organized in 1874. First chapel was moved from Port Lavaca; present church, built 1889, was dedicated May 25, 1890, when the Rev. George Hinson was rector. Gothic architecture with clapboard siding, walnut interior, cedar shingle roof. Rectors have included Hudson Stuck (1892-94), reformer, child labor laws, and conqueror of Mt. McKinley, and Everett H. Jones (1927-30), later fourth bishop, Diocese of West Texas. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark, 1966.