First Presbyterian Church of Cotulla

One Presbyterian pastor tied two railroad towns together. The Rev. Harry W. Hamilton took the Cotulla pulpit in 1909 and from 1910 also served Encinal, 27 miles south on the International-Great Northern line; the two plaques say he held both until his death in 1940. Cotulla's Presbyterians had formed in 1884, two years after the depot opened, and borrowed the Methodist and Baptist churches until they built their own in 1891. In Encinal, Catholics had already built a church, in 1893, fifteen years before Hamilton's congregation there organized.

What the plaque says

First Presbyterian Church of Cotulla On September 4, 1884, the Rev. W. W. Killough, a visiting pastor, established this Presbyterian congregation. Members worshiped in the Methodist and Baptist churches before erecting their own church building in 1891, ;during the ministry of the Rev. A. J. Hall. The Rev. Harry W. Hamilton served as pastor from 1909 until his death in 1940. In 1963 the small frame church was destroyed by fire; only a silver communion service was saved. The present structure was dedicated in 1965. (1978)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Brush Country Museum — steps away
  La Salle County's local museum, with a segregated-schools display that sets the scene for the Welhausen School, where Lyndon Johnson taught Mexican American children in 1928-29.
• Chaparral Wildlife Management Area — 14 mi
  A 15,200-acre South Texas brush country research tract in La Salle and Dimmit counties, open to the public in spring and summer, with a short accessible trail and a long ranching past.

More markers nearby

• La Salle County — steps away
• Cotulla City Park — steps away
• Cotulla's First School — steps away
• First Deep Artesian Well — steps away