St. Matthews Episcopal Church

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker says about St. Matthews Episcopal Church in Comanche County. Now, some buildings just stand there.

This one has been standing since 1887, and it has something to say. The story starts even before that, back in the late 1870s, when Bishop Alexander C. Garrett of Dallas was conducting the earliest Episcopal worship services in the Comanche area.

Think about what that looked like. No paved roads, no easy passage, just a bishop making his rounds through Texas country that did not exactly roll out a welcome mat for easy travel. The marker puts it plainly: his visits to this place were by horseback.

Let that sit with you a moment. A bishop, by horseback, to reach a congregation that had not yet built its church. Now that is commitment.

Then came 1886. The St. Matthews congregation had organized, and soon after, work began on this frame building.

The land itself was deeded by a woman named Sarah Jane Walcott, and on that land, they built what would become the oldest existing church structure in Comanche County. They finished it in 1887, and here is the part that ought to stop you in your tracks: it has been in continuous use ever since. Not restored and reopened.

Not saved and rededicated. Continuous use. Every decade, every generation, right on through to today.

Bishop Garrett rode horseback through Texas wilderness to hold services before this building even existed, and the congregation he helped gather went on to build something that has never once gone dark. That frame church on Sarah Jane Walcott's land has outlasted just about everything around it. Some things in Texas were built to last, and some things in Texas just refuse to quit.

St. Matthews Episcopal Church, it seems, is both.

What the marker says

The earliest Episcopal worship services in the Comanche area were conducted in the late 1870s by Bishop Alexander C. Garrett of Dallas. In 1886, soon after the organization of the St. Matthews congregation, work began on this frame building. Located on land deeded by Sarah Jane Walcott, it is the oldest existing church structure in Comanche County and has been in continuous use since its completion in 1887. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1964 [Text of original plate, 1964] St. Matthews Episcopal Church. County's oldest church building when built in 1887. Was so remote its Bishop's visits were by horseback.