DUANE
Duane's take
The way the marker tells it — and I'm taking my cue straight from that official text — this is the story of Grace Episcopal Church in Calhoun County, and it is one stubborn little congregation. Now, Episcopal worship was already happening in Lavaca before the eighteen-fifties even got started. Before the eighteen-fifties.
So by the time the Reverend Henry N. Pierce, rector of Christ Church over in Matagorda, began making periodic trips to conduct services here in 1852, there was already a tradition to build on. Then along comes the Reverend C.
S. Hedges, with funding made possible by an Ohio benefactor — somebody way up in Ohio believed in this place — and in 1853, Grace Church was organized. Here is where the story takes a dark turn, and it deserves to be said plainly.
Deadly yellow fever epidemics struck in 1853 and again in 1855. Both years. Devastating the church and devastating the town.
You organize a congregation, and before the ink is dry, you are burying your people. That is not a footnote — that is the weight this church carried from its very beginning. And still it survived.
Though not without more hardship. In 1874 the bishop ordered the church building — the building itself — moved to Cuero, to serve a larger population there. Imagine watching your church get loaded up and hauled down the road.
Grace Church survived that too. By 1887 a second building had been secured. New walls, new start.
Then 1945 — a hurricane destroyed it. Destroyed. But the congregation rebuilt, and by 1949 the work was done.
Grace Church regained parish status in 1951, and in the decades that followed, additional facilities were built to meet the church's growing needs. Epidemics, a bishop's order, a hurricane. Every time this church got knocked flat, it got back up.
That Ohio benefactor back in 1853 had no way of knowing just how much his investment would be tested — but Grace Church made it count. This marker was erected by the Calhoun County Historical Commission, George Fred Rhodes, Chairman.
What the marker says
Records indicate Episcopal worship services were held in Lavaca prior to the 1850s. By 1852 the Rev. Henry N. Pierce, rector of Christ Church in Matagorda, periodically came to conduct services here. The Rev. C. S. Hedges, with funding made possible by an Ohio benefactor, organized Grace Church in 1853. Deadly yellow fever epidemics in 1853 and 1855 devastated the church and the town. In 1874 the bishop ordered the church building moved to Cuero to serve a larger population. Grace Church survived, however, and a second building was secured in 1887. Destroyed by a hurricane in 1945, it was rebuilt by 1949. Grace Church regained parish status in 1951, and additional facilities were built to meet the church's needs in the following decades. (1998) Incise on back: Erected by Calhoun County Historical Commission; George Fred Rhodes, Chairman