St. Joseph Catholic Church

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about St. Joseph Catholic Church in Waxahachie, Ellis County. Now, every congregation has to start somewhere, and this one started small.

Real small. Two brothers, English and American ancestry, arrived in Waxahachie in 1859. That was it.

That was the Catholic community. Two men. Keeping the faith as best they could in a land that didn't exactly have a parish on every corner.

Then 1870 rolls around, and a German Catholic family joins them. Progress. Then 1871 brings a whole contingent of Irish Catholic stonemasons, come to help build the third Ellis County Courthouse.

These were working people, skilled people, and they brought their families. They kept the Catholic faith alive in their homes, those scattered households holding on to something together. And occasionally, French Catholic missionaries would pass through and minister to this tiny Catholic community.

Occasionally. That word carries some weight when you think about how far apart those visits must have felt. But things were about to change.

In 1874, the Bishop of Galveston assigned Father Claude Marie Thion to minister to Catholics in Ellis and Hill counties. Father Thion didn't just pass through. He got to work.

That same year, he organized St. Joseph Catholic Church in Waxahachie with twenty charter members. Twenty people.

You could fit them in a parlor, but they had a church. Then in 1875, Father Thion conducted the first Mass in the new church building. And in 1877, he performed the first Catholic marriage ceremony in all of Ellis County.

Now, the Diocese of Dallas was created in 1890, and here's where the story takes a turn worth noting. The congregation in Waxahachie had grown enough that the new bishop decided a new arrangement was in order. He traded the Catholic church building and land to local Methodists, and in exchange received fifteen hundred dollars and four and a half acres of land.

Real estate and religion, working out a deal in Ellis County. By 1892, the graves in the early cemetery had been reinterred in the city cemetery. And by that time, Waxahachie had a Catholic population of forty.

Forty people. From two brothers in 1859 to forty souls by 1892, with a new piece of land and a future to build on. The church grew steadily through the first half of the twentieth century.

The Diocese erected a third church building in 1954, and they kept the name: St. Joseph. The second half of the century brought more growth still, until the congregation reached thirteen hundred and sixty ethnically diverse families, active in worship, religious education, social and civic service, and mission work throughout western Ellis County.

From two brothers keepin' the faith in their home, to thirteen hundred and sixty families in their second century. That right there is a long, quiet, determined kind of miracle.

What the marker says

The earliest Catholic settlers in Waxahachie were two brothers of English and American ancestry who arrived in 1859. A German Catholic family joined them in 1870 and a number of Irish Catholic stonemasons arrived in 1871 to assist in the building of the third Ellis County Courthouse. They and their families kept the Catholic faith in their homes. Occasionally French Catholic missionaries would minister to this tiny Catholic community. The Bishop of Galveston assigned Father Claude Marie Thion to minister to Catholics in Ellis and Hill counties in 1874. Father Thion organized St. Joseph Catholic Church in Waxahachie with twenty charter members that year. He conducted the first Mass in the new church building in 1875. Father Thion performed the first Catholic marriage ceremony in Ellis County in 1877. In 1890 the Diocese of Dallas was created. Because of the growth of the Waxahachie congregation, the new bishop traded the Catholic church building and land to local methodists in exchange for $1500 and 4.5 acres of land. The graves in the early cemetery were reinterred in the city cemetery in 1892. By this time Waxahachie had a Catholic population of forty. The church grew steadily in the first half of the 20th century, and the Diocese erected a third church building in 1954. The church retained the name of St. Joseph. In the second half of the 20th century the church continued to grow. With 1360 ethnically diverse families in their second century, the congregation is active in worship, religious education, social and civic service and mission work throughout western Ellis County. (2000)