West Brethren Church

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about West Brethren Church in McLennan County. Now, if you want to understand this congregation, you've got to go back to about 1875, when Czech immigrants started putting down roots in this corner of McLennan County. Early families, names like Josef Masek and John Foit, were finding their footing in new Texas soil.

For a while, they worshipped at St. Peter's Evangelical Church, a congregation founded and attended by German settlers. Not a bad arrangement, but not quite home either.

Then came the Rev. Henry Juren, conducting services in the Czech Moravian Brethren tradition. And right from the very start, this ministry was leaving its mark.

At his first service in 1888, the Rev. Mr. Juren baptized an infant by the name of H.

E. Beseda. Now hold onto that name.

Because that child, baptized at the very first service of this new spiritual endeavor, would one day become a minister himself. Sometimes a story tells you everything it needs to right at the beginning. The congregation got its formal shape in June of 1892, when the Rev.

Adolph Chlumsky officially organized the West Brethren Church. And here's a man who took commitment seriously. Rev.

Chlumsky traveled from his farm in Brenham by railroad, about six times a year, to conduct services. That's a round trip across Texas terrain, done again and again, because the work mattered. From the congregation's early days, a choir was active.

The youth were involved. And in 1893, the Krestanske Sestry, that's the Christian Sisters, organized with twenty-six members. This was a community building itself from the inside out.

In 1894, church trustees bought three acres east of town, and with one thousand dollars and donated labor, they built a church. They dedicated that building in 1896. By the turn of the twentieth century, there were about fifty communicants gathering under that roof.

Families named Adam, Barton, Beseda, Foit, Hegar, Janek, Kudelka, and Svacek. Czech names carried on Texas land. The Mutual Aid Society of the Brethren Church organized in 1905.

In 1908, Mrs. Anna Urbanovsky donated a tract of land for a cemetery. The congregation was not just worshipping together.

They were burying their dead together, tending to one another in life and in loss. Then 1919 brought a windstorm that severely damaged the church building. The congregation didn't fold.

They replaced it in 1920, and that building served them faithfully until July of 1956, when it in turn gave way to a modern brick facility. A sanctuary seating two hundred and twenty people, a large fellowship hall, and ten classrooms. More than a century of worship, of choir voices, of young people, of Christian Sisters meeting and mutual aid societies organizing, of ministers riding the rails to get there.

West Brethren Church is still part of this community, still offering worship and educational programs. That infant baptized at the very first service in 1888 could not have imagined what that first drop of water would grow into.

What the marker says

Czech immigrants began settling in this area of McLennan County about 1875. Early families included those of Josef Masek and John Foit. They attended St. Peter's Evangelical Church, founded and attended by German settlers, until the Rev. Henry Juren began conducting services in the Czech Moravian Brethren tradition. At his first service in 1888, the Rev. Mr. Juren baptized infant H. E. Beseda, who later became a minister himself. The Rev. Adolph Chlumsky formally organized the West Brethren Church in June 1892. He traveled from his farm in Brenham by railroad about six times a year to conduct services. A choir was active from the congregation's early days, as were the youth of the church. The Krestanske Sestry (Christian Sisters) was organized in 1893 with 26 members. In 1894, church trustees bought three acres east of town and built a church for one thousand dollars and donated labor. The building was dedicated in 1896. There were about fifty communicants by the turn of the 20th century. Among them were families named Adam, Barton, Beseda, Foit, Hegar, Janek, Kudelka and Svacek. The Mutual Aid Society of the Brethren Church organized in 1905. Mrs. Anna Urbanovsky donated a tract of land for a cemetery in 1908. The church building was severely damaged in a 1919 windstorm. It was replaced in 1920 and served until July 1956, when it was replaced by a modern brick facility with a sanctuary seating 220, a large fellowship hall and ten classrooms. A part of the community for more than a century, West Brethren Church continues to offer a variety of worship and educational programs. (2000)