Trinity Lutheran Church

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker says about Trinity Lutheran Church in Jefferson County. Now settle in, because this one starts small, real small, and grows into something worth talkin' about. Twelve people.

That's all. Twelve folks gathered in this corner of Southeast Texas in early 1899 to hear the Reverend C. G.

Kuppler of Louisiana deliver the first German Lutheran sermon in the whole area. Twelve people in a room, and from that, well, just listen to what happened. That little group wasn't content to wait and wonder.

They applied for a regular pastor, and the Lutheran Mission Commission answered by sending Dan Poellot, a theological student, who served about six months. Then in August of 1899, Pastor Kuppler came back and installed a Concordia Seminary graduate named H. C.

Gaertner, who'd come up from New Orleans, as pastor of the church in Port Arthur. And Gaertner wasn't just tending one flock. He was assigned to minister to Lutherans in Beaumont and Orange as well.

That's a lot of ground to cover in 1899. The congregation wasn't wasting any time on the organizational side either. They established a church constitution that same year, 1899, and in 1901 they incorporated under a name that takes a breath to say: The Evangelical Lutheran Trinity Congregation of the Unaltered Augsburg Confession.

Now, 1902 brought a blow that would've finished off a lesser congregation. The church and its school burned. Both of them, gone.

But these folks rebuilt, and by 1903 they were back. By 1904 the membership had doubled in size and the congregation was self-supporting. You can feel the momentum building, can't you.

Port Arthur itself was growing fast, pushed along by the industrialization that followed the Spindletop oil boom and surged again during World War One. The city expanded, and Trinity expanded with it. In 1924, a new building was dedicated two miles from the old church.

Two miles might not sound like much, but it's far enough that the old structure didn't just sit empty. It became a mission, first attended by Trinity members who still lived near the original site. That mission grew.

It grew until it became St. Paul Lutheran Church. Trinity had a way of doin' that, of nurturing something until it could stand on its own.

Good Shepherd in Port Arthur followed in 1947. St. Mark in Port Arthur came along in 1950.

Holy Cross in Nederland was organized in 1957. Missions becoming churches, each one a branch from that original twelve-person gathering. The school that had risen from the ashes in 1903 ran for eighty-five years before the 1980s brought a different kind of trouble.

Port Arthur's oil industry was waning, and with it, school enrollment declined. The school closed in 1987. But here's the thing about Trinity: closing one chapter has never meant closing the book.

The congregation initiated new programs and remained active. And in 1991, recognizing a growing Vietnamese population in the area, they established Hoi Thanh Tin Lanh as a new mission. Twelve people heard one sermon in early 1899.

What they started is still going.

What the marker says

Twelve people heard the Rev. C. G. Kuppler of Louisiana deliver the first German Lutheran sermon in this area in early 1899. The small group applied for a regular pastor; the Lutheran Mission Commission sent Dan Poellot, a theological student, who served about six months. In August 1899 Pastor Kuppler installed Concordia Seminary graduate H. C. Gaertner of New Orleans as pastor of the church in Port Arthur, and assigned him to minister to Lutherans in Beaumont and Orange as well. The Port Arthur congregation established a church constitution in 1899 and incorporated as "The Evangelical Lutheran Trinity Congregation of the Unaltered Augsburg Confession" in 1901. The church and its school burned in 1902, but the congregation rebuilt by 1903. The church membership doubled in size and was self-supporting by 1904. The industrialization following the Spindletop oil boom and during World War l caused Port Arthur to grow rapidly. A new building two miles from the old church wa dedicated in 1924. The old structure became a mission, first attended by Trinity members who lived near the old site. It soon grew to become St. Paul Lutheran Church. Trinity helped organize more missions which became full churches: Good Shepard, Port Arthur, in 1947; St. Mark, Port Arthur, in 1950; and Holy Cross, Nederland, in 1957. Trinity's school enrollment declined in the 1980s with the wane of Port Arthur's oil industry. The school closed in 1987 after 85 years of operation, but the church initiated new programs and remains active. Hoi Thanh Tin Lanh, a mission for the growing Vietnamese population, was established in 1991. (1999)