DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church in Colorado County, Texas. Now settle in, because this story starts early — real early, even by Texas standards. We're talkin' the early 1830s, when pioneer German Catholic immigrants were putting down roots in this part of the country.
Hard land, big sky, and a faith they weren't about to leave behind in the old country. Out of that determination, they founded Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church — about 1843, the marker says. About.
Which means the exact moment is lost somewhere in the dust and the decades, and maybe that's fitting. Some things are bigger than a single date on a calendar. In those earliest days, there was no building, no resident priest, no parish.
What they had were the "saddle bag" priests — itinerant men of the cloth who rode circuit through the wilderness bringing the sacraments wherever they could. The Rev. John Odin and the Rev.
J. P. Ogee were among them, and you can imagine the sound of a horse picking its way through the Texas brush, a priest with everything he needed for a Mass packed into those saddlebags.
The congregation gathered wherever they could and made do. But they weren't content with making do for long. In 1844 they built a log sanctuary right here.
A real structure. A place to stand and say: we are here, and we are staying. Then in 1847 the church became an official parish, and the Rev.
J. A. Jacobs became its first resident priest — no more waitin' on the circuit rider.
And 1847 brought something else, too. A cemetery was established here that same year, with the burial of Gertrude Schemmer Halfmann. The living building their future and the dead being laid to rest in the same ground, the same year.
That's how a community plants itself in a place. By the early 1850s, Saints Peter and Paul had grown into something remarkable. Under the leadership of the Rev.
Peter V. Gury, it had become the principal religious institution for settlements as distant as fifty miles. Fifty miles, on roads that weren't much more than suggestions.
People made that journey. Then came 1854, and here's where the story gets a little larger than just one congregation. Galveston Bishop John Odin — you may remember that name from the saddle bag days, because it is the same Rev.
John Odin — and the Rev. Gury together founded the First Catholic Seminary in Texas, right here. The man who once rode the circuit had become a bishop, and now he was helping build the very institution that would train the next generation.
The church kept growin', kept buildin'. New sanctuaries went up in 1861 and again in 1912. That 1912 structure stood for a while — and then, in 1926, fire took it.
Fire has a way of ending chapters abruptly. But the congregation didn't skip a beat. They replaced it, completing the sanctuary that stands today in 1927 and 1928.
And what they built is worth describing. Classical features: Corinthian columns, dentils, pedimented gable ends. But also Gothic windows and Tudor-arched double entry doors — styles from different traditions, different centuries, somehow made to speak to each other.
German Catholic pioneers who came here with everything packed into what they could carry built, over the course of nearly a century, something with Corinthian columns. That's a sentence worth sitting with. The marker notes it stands in memory of Lillie and Ewald Stein, placed by Mr. and Mrs.
Leroy Stein. And Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church, after all of it — the saddle bag priests, the log sanctuary, the seminary, the fire, the rebuilding — continues to serve the community. Some things, it turns out, are built to last.
What the marker says
Pioneer German Catholic immigrants who settled in this area in the early 1830s founded Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church about 1843. The congregation initially attended services held by itinerant priests known as "saddle bag" priests, including the Rev. John Odin and the Rev. J. P. Ogee. A log sanctuary was built here in 1844 and in 1847 the church became an official parish; the Rev. J. A. Jacobs served as its first resident priest. A cemetery was established here in 1847 with the burial of Gertrude Schemmer Halfmann. During the early 1850s the church was led by the Rev. Peter V. Gury and had become the principal religious institution for settlements as distant as 50 miles. Galveston Bishop John Odin and the Rev. Gury founded the First Catholic Seminary in Texas in here in 1854. The church erected new sanctuaries here in 1861 and again in 1912. The 1912 structure was destroyed by fire in 1926 and replaced with this sanctuary which was completed in 1927-1928. The building exhibits classical features such as Corithian columns, dentils, and pedimented gable ends. Other prominent features of this building include Gothic windows and Tudor-arched double entry doors. Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church continues to serve the community. RTHL-1003 Incise on front: In memory of Lillie & Ewald Stein by Mr. and Mrs. Leroy Stein