DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about St. Mary's Parish in Lavaca County. Now settle in, because this one goes back a good long ways.
We're talking about a place that is considered the oldest rural Catholic parish in all of Texas — and that distinction didn't come easy. St. Mary's was already taking root before the Texas War for Independence even began.
Before the cannons fired, before the flags changed, families were putting down stakes here. Pioneers like James Brown — and you'll want to remember that name — were among the ones who settled this ground. James Brown.
He went on to be killed in the siege of the Alamo. So the very soil this parish grew from was tended by a man who gave everything for Texas. That's not a small thing to sit with.
The first actual church building for St. Mary's went up in 1840, shaped in no small part by two missionary fathers — George Haydon and Edward A. Clarke.
Those two didn't stop at building a church, either. They opened a school for the settlement right alongside it. Faith and learning, together from the start.
Then in 1847, when Texas got its very first diocese — the Diocese of Galveston — St. Mary's was one of only ten churches that made up that founding body. Ten churches for an entire state.
And this parish was one of them. Over the years, St. Mary's has sent many priests and sisters off to their vocations — a legacy that keeps walking out the door and into the wider world.
Some places are old. Some places are foundational. St.
Mary's Parish manages to be both.
What the marker says
Considered the oldest rural Catholic parish in Texas, St. Mary's was settled before the Texas War for Independence by such pioneers as James Brown, who was killed in the siege of the Alamo. First church edifice for St. Mary's was built in 1840 under influence of missionary Fathers George Haydon and Edward A. Clarke, who also opened school for the settlement. This was one of ten churches comprising Texas' first diocese (Galveston) at its formation in 1847. Many priests' and sisters' vocations have come from this historic parish. (1971)