The Rev. Henry P. Young

Duane's take

The way the marker tells it, here's the story of the Reverend Henry P. Young. Born Heinrich P.

Jung in Germany in 1817, this man would carry his faith across an ocean and plant it deep in Texas soil. He arrived in Galveston and began a Methodist ministry there in 1846, and that very same year, he founded the first society of German Methodists in Texas. Let that settle for a moment.

The first. In the whole state. Then, starting in 1849, he didn't stay put.

He rode a mission circuit, out among the German colonies scattered across Central Texas, and he kept riding it until 1855. Six years on horseback, tending to those scattered communities. By 1856 he had returned to Galveston.

And then came a turn nobody could have predicted. In 1857, the Reverend Young joined the Presbyterian faith, and he organized the German Presbyterian Church and School right there in Galveston. Minister and teacher both, under the same roof.

He served in that role, year after year, for the rest of his life. Heinrich P. Jung, who became Henry P.

Young, who came to Galveston in 1846, was still at his post when he died on September 12, 1901. Some men plant a single seed. Henry Young planted a whole tradition, and then tended it himself until the very end.

What the marker says

(October 2, 1817 - September 12, 1901) Born Heinrich P. Jung in Germany in 1817, the Rev. Henry P. Young began a Methodist ministry in Galveston in 1846. That year he founded the first society of German Methodists in Texas. From 1849 to 1855 he rode a mission circuit of German colonies in Central Texas. He returned to Galveston by 1856. In 1857 he joined the Presbyterian faith and organized the German Presbyterian Church and School where he served as minister and teacher until his death in 1901. Recorded - 1992