Texas Colony
It was during the year 1854 that about 558 Wendish Lutherans from Kilian's congregations in Prussia and also from Saxony called him to lead them to Texas. Many people in Kilian's congregation were dissatisfied with the philosophy of rationalism spreading through Europe. Some viewed rationalism as an attempt to replace religion with science. With growing religious discontent, economic hardship and Kilian's desire to be a missionary in a foreign country, Kilian brought his followers to Galveston and eventually settled about 55 miles east of Austin in Lee County.
On March 25, 1854, a new Lutheran congregation was organized at Dauban, to become the cornerstone of a large Wendish emigration. Rev. Kilian was called as Pastor. This move resulted in the establishment of Low Pin Oak Settlement later renamed Serbin.One of the first acts accomplished by Rev. Kilian was to apply for membership in the fledgling Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Serbin became the first of many Missouri Synod churches in Texas, and it had the only Wendish language speaking school in America.
Read more about this topic: John Kilian
Famous quotes containing the words texas and/or colony:
“Worn down by the hoofs of millions of half-wild Texas cattle driven along it to the railheads in Kansas, the trail was a bare, brown, dusty strip hundreds of miles long, lined with the bleaching bones of longhorns and cow ponies. Here and there a broken-down chuck wagon or a small mound marking the grave of some cowhand buried by his partners “on the lone prairie” gave evidence to the hardships of the journey.”
—For the State of Kansas, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
““Tall tales” were told of the sociability of the Texans, one even going so far as to picture a member of the Austin colony forcing a stranger at the point of a gun to visit him.”
—Administration in the State of Texa, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)