Zions Kirche

Duane's take

The way the marker at Zions Kirche tells it, here's how Duane reads it to you. Back in 1871, a man named Reverend William Felsing came riding through Comal County as an itinerant minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church. That word, itinerant, means he was movin', constantly movin', circuit preacher style, never stayin' long in any one place.

But something happened here. He gathered fifty-two German members together and organized a congregation. Fifty-two souls, right there at the start.

Now that is a foundation worth buildin' on. And build they did. The very next year, 1872, a building went up.

Native limestone, the kind this Hill Country has in abundance, pulled from the land these same families were working with their own hands. There is something fitting about a church made from the same stone the congregation was standing on. The building served them well, and then in 1893, they enlarged it.

The congregation had grown, the walls needed to stretch. And still they were not finished. In 1913, a brick façade and a bell tower were added.

Think about that progression. Limestone walls in 1872, expansion in 1893, brick and a tower reaching skyward by 1913. Each generation leaving its mark on the same building.

And here is the part of this story that really lands, the part that makes Zions Kirche something more than just an old church on a Texas road. When that 1972 marker was set down, the heirs of the original founders were still there. Still in that congregation.

A century on from those first fifty-two German members, and the families had not scattered. They stayed. Some stories end.

This one just kept going.

What the marker says

Organized 1871, with 52 German members, by the Rev. William Felsing, itinerant minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Building was erected 1872 of native limestone; enlarged 1893; had brick façade and bell tower added, 1913. Still in congregation are heirs of founders of this church. (1972)