Shiner Brethren Church

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, in my own words and my own time. Somewhere about four miles south of Shiner, in a stretch of Lavaca County called the Vlastenec area, a community was taking root. Emigrants from Bohemia and Moravia, of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, had made their way here in the mid-1880s.

Most came from rural places, and they were people of the Brethren faith, and what they wanted, more than almost anything, was to build a new church in a rural setting. That's not a small thing. That's everything, when you're that far from where you started.

Now, they didn't have a church building right away. For a while, they gathered at the Michna School, holding services there, making do. In 1891, they organized their church formally.

Then in 1894, they joined something larger, the Evangelical Unity of the Bohemian-Moravian Brethren in North America. Still, they kept meeting at the school for several more years, patient as only people of deep conviction can be. Finally, in 1905, the congregation bought one acre.

One acre, right here, to build on. And they didn't waste time. That same year, on August 13, 1905, they consecrated the wooden structure.

The service was conducted by Reverend Henry Juren of Fayetteville, Reverend Adolph Chlumsky and Reverend Paul Dyck of Brenham, and Reverend William Dziewas of Shiner. Four ministers for one consecration. They meant it.

And then, the very next month, something significant happened. The church hosted the third convention of the Unity of Brethren. At that convention, they established the Mutual Aid Society, a Christian service organization.

This congregation, brand new in its own building, already serving as a gathering place for something bigger than itself. All of their services, their church records, Sunday school, confirmation classes, all of it was conducted in the Czech language, and that held true until the middle of the twentieth century. The old country was still present in every word spoken inside those walls.

Then came the 1940s, and the world pressed in the way it does. Sixteen young men from this congregation went off to serve in World War II. Sixteen.

The congregation made a flag, blue stars on a white background, one star for each man. You can picture it hanging there, each star a name somebody in the pews knew by heart. One of those men, Gus Elsik, was killed in service in Italy.

And the congregation changed his star to gold. There's no way to say that and dress it up. They changed his star to gold.

The congregation became independent in 1967, and through all of it, they never had a resident pastor. Ministers came once or twice a month to lead services. That was the rhythm of this place, always relying on someone making the journey to them, the same way they had once made a much longer journey to get here at all.

In the latter part of the twentieth century, as the area's population decreased, the congregation's numbers declined too. That's the quiet ending a lot of rural churches know. But the story of this one, the emigrants, the school, the wooden church consecrated on a summer day in 1905, the blue stars and the one gold one, that's a story the ground out here doesn't forget.

What the marker says

Shiner Brethren Church Emigrants from Bohemia and Moravia, of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, came to the Vlastenec area, about four miles south of Shiner, in the mid-1880s. Most came from rural areas and were of the Brethren faith, and wanted to establish a new church in a rural setting. The settlers first held services at the Michna School and, in 1891, organized their church, joining the Evangelical Unity of the Bohemian-Moravian Brethren in North America in 1894. After continuing to hold services at the school for several years, the congregation bought one acre here in 1905 on which to build a church. The wooden structure was consecrated August 13, 1905, with the Revs. Henry Juren of Fayetteville, Adolph Chlumsky and Paul Dyck of Brenham, and William Dziewas of Shiner conducting services. The next month, the church hosted the third convention of the Unity of Brethren, which established the Mutual Aid Society, a Christian service organization. In the 1940s, sixteen young men from the congregation served in World War II, and the congregation made a flag of blue stars on a white background, with one star for each man. One church member, Gus Elsik, was killed in service in Italy, and the church changed his star to gold. Church services and records, as well as Sunday school and confirmation classes, were in the Czech language until the middle of the 20th century. The congregation became independent in 1967. It never had a resident pastor, but relied on ministers coming once or twice a month to lead services. The congregation's numbers declined in the latter part of the 20th century as the area's population decreased. (2002)