St. John Church

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Way out in the Richland community of Travis County, German settlers arrived in the 1860s and they needed a place to worship. No building waiting for them, no steeple on the horizon.

So they did what people do when the land is new and the community is still finding its shape. They gathered in each other's homes. That was the beginning.

Quiet, modest, borrowed space around somebody's hearth. But things were building. By 1878, nineteen charter members came together under the leadership of Reverend G.

Haehnelt and organized what they called the St. John German Evangelical Lutheran Church. Nineteen people.

That's not a crowd, that's a commitment. Now, a congregation needs more than faith. It needs a roof.

And so land was given for a schoolhouse, and that schoolhouse is where services were held while the community worked toward something permanent. The first sanctuary went up in 1884. A real church, at last.

But this story doesn't stop there. The second sanctuary was erected in 1891, and then the present building came along in 1925, replacing it. Three buildings across the decades, each one a chapter.

And all that time, through every one of those sanctuaries, the services were conducted in German. German hymns, German scripture, German prayers echoing off Texas cedar and limestone. That continued until the 1930s, when the language began to give way, as languages do, to the world pressing in around it.

Then in 1960, the congregation affiliated with the United Church of Christ. From private homes in the 1860s to a lasting place in a larger fellowship by 1960. That, my friend, is a congregation that knew how to endure.

What the marker says

German settlers who came to Richland community in the 1860s worshiped originally in private homes. Nineteen charter members, under leadership of the Rev. G. Haehnelt, organized the St. John German Evangelical Lutheran Church in 1878. Church land was given for a schoolhouse where services were held until the first sanctuary was built in 1884. The second was erected in 1891 and replaced by the present building in 1925. Services were conducted in German until the 1930s. In 1960 the congregation became affiliated with the United Church of Christ. (1978)