Eben-Ezer Evangelical Lutheran Church

Berlin had settlers before it had a church. The Handbook of Texas credits the Valentin Hoffmann family, from Hesse, with first settling the area in 1848, and Hoffmann bought 156 acres in 1851. F. W. Schürenberg was a farmer and blacksmith, and Herman Knittel, born in Silesia, ran the store and later served as postmaster. After the Civil War two of Hoffmann's sons, both Confederate veterans, set up a cotton gin and gristmill. A county public school anchored the settlement until it consolidated with the Brenham district in 1956.

What the plaque says

Eben-Ezer Evangelical Lutheran Church Spiritual center of the Berlin community, which was settled by Germans in 1847. On a missionary visit, Dec. 24, 1854, The Rev. Johann Ebinger (1828-1908) of Harris County held earliest Lutheran service in Washington County. On July 1, 1855, he founded Eben-Ezer Church with William C. Bohne, F. H. Ehlert, F. F. Spreen and others as trustees. Ludwig C. Lehmann (1794-1855) donated 11-acre church site. Landowners gave post oak logs, renters gave labor for building first church, incorporating a parsonage. The early pastors taught school in that first church building. (1974)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Independence and Old Baylor Park — 12 mi
  A crossroads north of Brenham that was the richest town in Texas when it won Baylor University in 1845, refused the railroad, and lost the college to Waco and Belton in 1886.
• Round Top and Festival Hill — 16 mi
  A German village on the old La Bahía Road, named for a house tower, with an 1867 stone church, a Fourth of July kept since 1851 and a concert hall a pianist built without blueprints.
• Lake Somerville State Park and Trailway — 18 mi
  Two park units on an 11,000-acre lake between Austin and College Station, joined by a thirteen-mile trailway for hikers, cyclists and riders with primitive camps along the way.
• Washington-on-the-Brazos State Historic Site — 21 mi
  The townsite on the Brazos where delegates met in a cold, unfinished hall in March 1836 to declare Texas independent, with Independence Hall rebuilt and Anson Jones's Barrington farm worked as in 1850.

More markers nearby

• Mt. Zion United Methodist Church — 2.5 mi
• Brenham Public Library — 2.9 mi
• St. Paul's Evangelical Lutheran Church — 2.9 mi
• First Methodist Church — 3.0 mi