Holy Cross Catholic Church

Polish Catholic families gathered at St. Francisville, called the Polish Village, and heard Mass in the Seerden home from 1885. Their church, consecrated on December 21, 1895, was the county's first Euro-American Catholic church. Louisiana Thompson grew up on a Caney Creek plantation that faced the Bowie plantation across the water, in a county where most people in 1860 were enslaved. Monsignor Schnetzer paid $150 for the Bay City lots in 1907, and the church, Nicholas Clayton's last, was finished in May 1909.

What the plaque says

Holy Cross Catholic Church In May 1847, the Catholic church established a new frontier diocese in Galveston. During the next several years, many Polish Catholic immigrants moved to Matagorda County, and priests from nearby towns visited their small community, known as St. Francisville. In the latter part of the 19th century, Louisiana Thompson Bowie was instrumental in bringing the priests to deliver Mass to area residents. Born to Anna Taliferro and Elbert A. Thompson in 1848, Louisiana grew up across Caney Creek from Harris Walker Bowie, whom she married. On April 13, 1895, while in New Orleans, she was baptized into the Catholic faith at Immaculate Conception parish. Back in Texas, at her home on the Bowie Plantation, she arranged for priests to stay with her family and traveled with them to the church in St. Francisville. Bay City became Matagorda County's seat of government in 1895, and visiting priests held Mass in the courthouse or in private homes. Monsignor Jacob B. Schnetzer became priest for the Bay City area in 1907, by which time the Bowies lived in the growing town; Schnetzer stayed in their home. In March 1907, he bought lots at Avenue M and Fifth Street to build a sanctuary for the Bay City parish. Designed by prominent Galveston architect Nicholas Clayton, the structure served the congregation for many years. As the church grew during the 20th century, it built new facilties, including a rectory, school, new sanctuary and other facilities. Today, Holy Cross Catholic Church offers worship and education programs and connects its members to their faith and to their history. (2006)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Levi Jordan Plantation State Historic Site — 18 mi
  A sugar and cotton plantation on the San Bernard River whose enslaved builders and their descendants left one of the best-preserved African American archeological sites in Texas.
• Varner-Hogg Plantation State Historic Site — 22 mi
  A Brazos sugar plantation built by enslaved people for the Patton family, later leased convict labor and Hogg family oil, now told through Rachel Patton and Sarah Ford.

More markers nearby

• First Christian Church of Bay City — 0.5 mi
• Daily Tribune and Matagorda County Tribune — 0.6 mi
• Site of Early Bay City School — 0.6 mi
• Bay City Library — 1.1 mi