Episcopal Church of St. Michael and All Angels

The bishop who married the Manbys and consecrated St. Michael's had come to Texas thirty-five years before. Alexander Charles Garrett, born in County Sligo, Ireland, in 1832 and educated at Trinity College, Dublin, worked as pastor, doctor, lawyer and teacher in British Columbia before he was consecrated bishop of the new missionary district of northern Texas in 1874. He reached Dallas on December 31 to find five coworkers for a field of 100,000 square miles. He founded St. Mary's College in 1889, kept speaking after he went blind, and died in Dallas in 1924.

What the plaque says

Episcopal Church of St. Michael and All Angels In 1883, Early W. Spencer and J. John Drew formed the Rocking Chair Ranche Company of London, England, consisting of 235 sections of land in Collingsworth and Wheeler counties; 14,745 head of cattle, 359 ponies; plus wagons and equipment. Later purchased by Colonel W.E. Hughes and renamed the Mill Iron Ranch, much of the land was subdivided and sold as smaller tracts for settlers. Many of these arrivals came from Suffolk, England, the first being George Herbert Aldous in 1887. He first arrived in Mobeetie and lived in a half-dugout along the bank of Elm Creek in northern Collingsworth County. His sister, Constance Fanny Aldous (1860-1944), soon arrived with her Book of Common Prayer and a desire to establish an Anglican church in the area. In 1898, Constance married fellow English immigrant Albert Manby (1874-1941) in a civil ceremony. When Bishop A.C. Garrett of the Diocese of Dallas visited, he married them again in a religious ceremony. As sporadic Episcopal services and sacraments continued for years, Constance solicited relatives and friends for funds to build a church, recording contributions in pounds, shillings and pence. She led 13 Episcopalians to petition the diocese for acceptance as a mission. Work on a building in Shamrock began in April 1909, and on July 4, 1909, Bishop Garrett consecrated St. Michael and All Angels as a mission church. Membership remained small but faithful through many years, and St. Michael's has never had a resident priest. Members have supported area congregations of other faiths and connected with their community through charity and outreach. The church's legacy is an example of the English heritage of the region imprinting upon the area's culture and faith. (2021)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Tower Station and U-Drop Inn — 1.1 mi
  Shamrock's 1936 Conoco station and cafe at the corner of Route 66 and US-83, sketched in the dirt with a nail, named by a schoolboy and saved by the town.
• Devil's Rope and Old Route 66 Museum — 20 mi
  Barbed wire and the Texas road in McLean's old brassiere factory: the fence that closed the open range, from the salesmen who sold it to the Panhandle ranches it divided.
• Phillips 66 Station, McLean — 20 mi
  A 1929 cottage-style Phillips 66 station on First Street in McLean, the town I-40 went around last and whose Route 66 business district stayed much as it was.
• Old Mobeetie Jail Museum — 24 mi
  The 1886 stone jail of the Panhandle's first county seat, the buffalo hunters' Hidetown on Sweetwater Creek that ran the courts for fifteen counties before losing its fort, railroad hopes and county seat.

More markers nearby

• Shamrock's St. Patrick's Day Celebration — 0.3 mi
• First Baptist Church of Shamrock — 0.5 mi
• Shamrock Methodist Church — 0.5 mi
• Lela School — 5.7 mi