St. Francis Catholic Church Community

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the St. Francis Catholic Church Community out in Potter County. Now settle in, because this is a story about a plan that didn't quite go the way anybody drew it up, and yet somehow turned out better than it had any right to.

It starts, as so many Texas stories do, with a couple of men with big ideas and a lot of miles between them and their destination. Dr. Guy Clifford Powell and The Rev.

Francis J. O'Reilly, both out of Illinois, had a vision. They were going to bring German Catholic settlers down to this stretch of Texas, and they worked hard at it.

Colonization efforts, they called it. And in 1907, those settlers started arrivin'. Families.

Farmers. Faithful people with roots deep in the old country and eyes set on new ground. They formed the nucleus of what would become St.

Francis Parish, and that was the seed of everything that followed. Now here's where the story takes one of those turns. There were plans for a town.

A real town, with all the trimmings. And those plans failed. Just, failed.

In another story, that's where you'd put down your coffee and say, well, that's a shame. But not here. What grew up instead was something quieter and maybe something sturdier.

A rural and agricultural community, built around the church as its spiritual, cultural, and social center. Not a town. A community.

There's a difference, and the people of St. Francis Parish understood it. The site even had a railroad depot at one point, and a school.

The kind of anchors that say: people live here, people plan to stay here. And stay they did. Urban growth crept up nearby, the way it does, and still the St.

Francis Catholic Church Community held onto its identity. Still reflected that pioneer heritage. Didn't get swallowed up.

Didn't fade. Then came March 13, 2008, when St. Francis Church marked a century of Eucharistic celebrations.

A hundred years of worship, growing in love of God, family, land, and country, as the marker puts it. A strong faith community. Started by settlers drawn down from Illinois by two men with a colonization dream, planted in Texas soil in 1907, and still standin'.

The plan for a town failed. The community did not.

What the marker says

Attracted by the colonization efforts of Illinois residents Dr. Guy Clifford Powell and The Rev. Francis J. O'Reilly, German Catholic settlers began moving here in 1907. The pioneers formed the nucleus of the St. Francis Parish. Plans for a town failed, but a strong rural and agricultural community developed with the church as the spiritual, cultural and social center. Once the site of a railroad depot and a school, the St. Francis Catholic Church Community has retained its identity and has continued to reflect its pioneer heritage despite nearby urban growth. Supplemental: St. Francis Church commemorates a century of Eucharistic celebrations growing in love of God, family, land and country as a strong faith community-March 13, 2008.