St. John's Catholic Church

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about St. John's Catholic Church in Scurry County. In the early nineteen hundreds, a number of farm families came up from South Texas and put down roots in this stretch of Texas.

They were Catholic folks, and they needed a place to worship. No church yet, so priests made the journey from Abilene and held services right in people's homes. One of those homes belonged to Albert J.

Kuss, Sr., born in 1863, along with other settlers who opened their doors and made room for the faithful. Now, that kind of hospitality has a way of building something lasting. A man named Robert Herm, born in 1874, donated a piece of land in the new town of Hermleigh, and on that land, in 1908, a church went up.

They called it the Church of Francis Xavier. It stood under that name for nearly three decades, serving the community through all the seasons a West Texas farming life can throw at you. Then came 1936, and with it a stipulation, which is a word that means somebody had money and conditions attached to it.

Funds were given to the congregation, and those funds came with a requirement: change the name to St. John's. So St.

John's it became. Years rolled on, and in 1983 a new Diocese of Lubbock was formed. St.

John's was included in it, and here is the part worth sittin' with. Of every parish in that entire Diocese, St. John's is the oldest.

It started in a farmhouse, with a priest who'd ridden in from Abilene, and it outlasted every congregation that came after it. That's not a tall tale. That's just what happened.

What the marker says

This area was settled in the early 1900s by a number of farm families from South Texas. Catholic services were first conducted by priests from Abilene in the homes of Albert J. Kuss, Sr. (1863-1945) and other settlers. The Church of Francis Xavier was built in 1908 on land donated by Robert Herm (1874-1927) in the new town of Hermleigh. In 1936 the name of the church was changed when funds were given to the congregation with the stipulation that its name be St. John's. Included in the new Diocese of Lubbock in 1983, St. John's is the oldest parish in the Diocese. (1988)