Helena Union Church

The plaque says the church is seen here, but it no longer is. Four years after the Old Helena Foundation moved and restored the 1875 building, a storm destroyed it in 1973, so the plaque now stands alone near the original site. The foundation later merged into the Karnes County Historical Society. On the same grounds, the two-story 1873 courthouse, later a school, houses the Karnes County Museum, which in 2012 opened Friday through Monday from 11 to 4 when volunteers were on hand.

What the plaque says

Helena Union Church Example of religious toleration in frontier Texas. Site was used early as 1866 by Methodists, whose church was "free to any Christian denomination for...worship, (and) subject to use of...Helena School". Trustees of that church were T. K. Bailey, James D. Campbell, Thomas Chandler, Isaac Conway, D. I. Johnson, Hiram McLand and William C. Mayfield. Helena Union Church (seen here) was built on same site in 1875 when Helena had 1,000 people and was county seat. A group of 58 (with John Ruckman, treasurer, and T. K. Bailey, secretary) subscribed $746 to build this church "of first class pine lumber...covered with...juniper shingles". The church was to have three trustees- one each from the Baptist, Methodist and Presbyterian faiths. The congregations took turns holding services; however, townspeople attended all services, regardless of differences in creed. Use of building was open to all Orthodox faiths. Early ministers were circuit-riders. Protestant services were continued until about 1925 and intermittently thereafter. Building was used by Catholics briefly in the early 1950s. Moved and restored 1969 by Old Helena Foundation. (1969)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Panna Maria — 4.7 mi
  The Silesian village on a plateau above the San Antonio River that claims the oldest permanent Polish settlement in America, with a church of 1878 and a ceiling found again in 2000.
• Goliad State Park and Historic Site — 33 mi
  Mission Espíritu Santo on the San Antonio River, a mission ranch whose herds seeded Texas cattle country, rebuilt from ruin by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s.
• Zaragoza Birthplace State Historic Site — 34 mi
  A rebuilt stone house beside La Bahía marking where Ignacio Seguín Zaragoza, the general of the Battle of Puebla and Cinco de Mayo, was born in 1829.
• Presidio La Bahía — 34 mi
  A Spanish fort on its third site since 1749, held in turn by filibusters, insurgents and Fannin's Fort Defiance, rebuilt in stone in the 1960s around a chapel that never fell.

More markers nearby

• Helena — steps away
• Thomas Ruckman — steps away
• Home of John Ruckman — steps away
• Town of Panna Maria — 4.7 mi