Saint Mary's Episcopal Church

Duane's take

The way the official marker tells it, here's the story of Saint Mary's Episcopal Church in Hamilton County. First Episcopal church in the whole county, and the road to get there was anything but easy. We're talkin' about 1868, when services weren't held in any fine stone building with a bell tower and Gothic arches.

No, the congregation gathered in the home of a Mrs. E. D.

Bell. That's where it began. Somebody's parlor, somebody's hospitality, and the Word.

Now, to make those early services happen, Rt. Rev. Alexander Gregg, the first bishop of Texas, rode here on horseback from Galveston.

Galveston. On a horse. You let that settle in for a moment.

The man had a diocese to tend to, and he tended it the hard way. That right there tells you something about what this church meant to the people who built it. Then comes 1891, and a man named Major C.

W. Cotton gave the site. Gave it.

After that, a building committee got to work: S. D. Felt, J.

L. Spurlin, and E. R.

Williams. Three names on a committee, and what they raised was a church built in Gothic architecture, the kind of building that reaches upward whether you mean it to or not. The bell that hangs in it was given by a merchant out of St.

Louis, which is the sort of detail that makes you wonder about the story behind it, but the marker lets it stand on its own, and so will we. In 1896, Bishop A. C.

Garrett consecrated the church, and the first rector to stand in that pulpit was the Reverend W. W. Patrick.

From a parlor in 1868 to consecrated ground in 1896, that's not a short journey. But then, the first bishop of Texas already proved that long journeys were just part of the work.

What the marker says

First Episcopal church in Hamilton County. Services were begun 1868 in home of Mrs. E. D. Bell, Rt. Rev. Alexander Gregg; first bishop of Texas, who rode here horseback from Galveston. Site given 1891 by Maj. C. W. Cotton. Building committee: S. D. Felt, J. L. Spurlin, E. R. Williams. Gothic architecture. Bell given by a St. Louis merchant. Consecrated 1896 by bishop A. C. Garrett. Rev. W. W. Patrick was the first rector. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark--1966