St. Joseph's Catholic Church

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker for St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Atascosa County has to say, and this one is worth every mile of road to hear it. Settlement along Gallinas Creek began in the early 1850s, before Atascosa County even existed.

The county wouldn't come along until 1856, but folks were already putting down roots out there, already calling that stretch of creek country home. In the years that followed, a group of families arrived and made the place their own. Several of them had come from Upper Silesia, Poland, and their names tell you something about the distance they'd traveled to get here.

The Kasper Kalka family. Frank Kinas. Joseph Kindla Sr.

John Korus. Charles Salzman. Sophie Skwortz.

Stanislaus Slomchinski. Christian Eichman. Victor Hug.

Wilfred Toudouze. Benjamin Arnold. Thomas Haiduk.

Vicente Huizar. Alcario Gonzales. A whole community, right there on the Texas frontier, settling a place called Gallinas, also known as Las Gallinas.

Most of the families in that settlement were Catholic. And so in 1876, eight families did what people of deep faith tend to do when they find each other out in the wide open. They established a parish.

They called it St. Joseph's Catholic Church, and it became one of the early predominantly Polish Catholic churches in the entire state of Texas. Now, in those early days, there was no church building to speak of.

Father Chapalar would come on horseback to say Mass, and he said it in the home of Kasper Kalka. On holy days when no priest could make the ride out, the families gathered in that same Kalka home and recited together the Mysteries of the Holy Rosary and the Litany of the Saints. Think about that.

A congregation holding its faith together in a farmhouse, voices rising up toward a Texas sky. By 1880, the community was ready to make something permanent. Kasper and Maria Kalka, John and Marianna Korus, and Charles and Anna Salzman, she went by Annie, donated land, and the language they used was plain and serious.

The land was given, quote, for the purpose of obtaining forever a place of public worship. Forever. Kasper Kalka also donated a separate parcel for a church cemetery.

That same year, 1880, a post office opened in Gallinas, and it would serve the community all the way until 1912. Construction on a new church building got underway in 1881. It took time, the way things worth building often do, and it was completed in 1896, with a forty-foot bell tower reaching up over the surrounding land.

In 1900, Father Rupprecht became the first resident pastor. Then in 1919, Benedictine sisters arrived and established a convent and a school right there at Gallinas. For a moment, that little settlement had just about everything.

But growth works in more than one direction. Families began moving to other communities, and the tide slowly turned. The convent and school closed in the 1920s.

The church itself closed in 1981. And then, in 1983, the church building was destroyed by fire. It's a hard ending to sit with.

But the marker doesn't leave it there, and neither will I. The impact and influence of St. Joseph's, it says, can still be measured generations after its founding.

All those families, all those names spoken aloud in that Kalka home, all those holy days and horseback rides and donated acres of Texas soil. They built something that outlasted the building. And out here on the road, that's worth knowing.

What the marker says

Settlement along Gallinas Creek began in the early 1850s, before the creation of Atascosa County in 1856. In succeeding years, a group of families, several originating from Upper Silesia, Poland, settled in the area. These included the Kasper Kalka, Frank Kinas, Joseph Kindla Sr., John Korus, Charles Salzman, Sophie Skwortz, Stanislaus Slomchinski, Christian Eichman, Victor Hug, Wilfred Toudouze, Benjamin Arnold, Thomas Haiduk, Vicente Huizar and Alcario Gonzales families. Most families in this settlement called Gallinas (also known as Las Gallinas) were Catholic and in 1876 eight families established a new parish, St. Joseph’s Catholic Church. It was one of the early predominantly Polish Catholic churches in the state. Father Chapalar came on horseback to say Mass in the home of Kasper Kalka, and on holy days when no priest was present families gathered in the Kalka home to recite together the “Mysteries of the Holy Rosary and the Litany of the Saints.” In 1880, Kasper and Maria Kalka, John and Marianna Korus, and Charles and Anna (Annie) Salzman donated land “for the purpose of obtaining forever a place of public worship.” Kasper Kalka also donated land for a church cemetery. A post office in Gallinas operated from 1880 to 1912. Construction on a new church building began in 1881 and was completed in 1896 to include a forty-foot bell tower. Father Rupprecht became the first resident pastor in 1900. Benedictine sisters established a convent and school at Gallinas in 1919. Growth in the settlement and the church was affected by families moving to other communities, leading to the closing of the convent and school in the 1920s and the church in 1981. The church building was destroyed by fire in 1983, but the impact and influence of St. Joseph’s can still be measured generations after its founding. (2018)