Evangelical Lutheran Colleges of Texas

The Brenham school was one link in a chain that ends at Seguin. The Handbook of Texas says the First Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Texas founded the Evangelical Lutheran College of Brenham in 1891 with Gottlieb Langner as first president, and renamed it the Evangelical Lutheran Proseminary of Brenham in 1909. In 1912, under C. Weeber, it moved to Seguin as the Lutheran College of Seguin. A partial merger with Trinity College of Round Rock followed in 1929, the name became Texas Lutheran College in 1932, and it became a university in 1996.

What the plaque says

Evangelical Lutheran Colleges of Texas The first Evangelical Lutheran Synod in Texas was organized in 1851 by eight pastors who would gather fellow-immigrants from Europe in congregations. Synod bought an existing campus at Rutersville in 1872 and operated her German-American College there until 1881 with Pastor H. Merz as president. In 1891 the Synod acquired a school plant on this site and established her Evangelical Lutheran College here. The courses were preparatory, commercial, teacher training, and classical. A dormitory for boys stood at Pecan and Clinton. Successive administrators were Pastors G. Langner, O. Hartmann, J. H. Romberg, E. Gerfen, F. Zimmermann. Synod closed the college in 1906, then founded an Evangelical Lutheran Pro-seminar on this campus to specialize in training students for entrance to a theological seminary. Launched Sept. 18, 1906, it prospered for six years under leadership of Pastor C. Weeber. Synod's fourth venture in field of higher education blossomed on Sept. 10, 1912, at Seguin, with the dedication of a new institution known later as Texas Lutheran College. Pastor C. Weeber, first president, served until 1929, raising its status to the rank of a junior college. (1976)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Independence and Old Baylor Park — 11 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.
• Washington-on-the-Brazos State Historic Site — 18 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.
• Star of the Republic Museum — 18 mi
  A star-shaped museum of the Republic of Texas years, 1836 to 1846, built at Washington-on-the-Brazos after a Brenham campaign and opened on March 1, 1970.
• Round Top and Festival Hill — 19 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.

More markers nearby

• St. Paul's Evangelical Lutheran Church — 0.3 mi
• Texas Confederate County Commissioners Court — 0.4 mi
• The Brenham Maifest — 0.4 mi
• Washington County, C.S.A. — 0.4 mi