New Tabor Brethren Church

New Tabor is named for Tabor, the Bohemian town the Hussites founded in the spring of 1420 and named for the biblical Mount Tabor. The choice evidently recalled that heritage, and the plaque says the settlers sought religious freedom. The Handbook of Texas says Czechs reached Burleson County in large numbers in the 1880s, forming enclaves in older communities and a few all-Czech towns, among them Frenstat, New Tabor and Sebesta, later called Snook. Like the Germans before them, they added to the county's mix of languages, churches and lodges.

What the plaque says

New Tabor Brethren Church About 1870 this area of Burleson County was settled by Czech-Moravian immigrants in search of fertile land and the religious freedom denied them in their native European homeland. Informal services were held twice a year in the family home of Joseph Macat until 1877, when The Rev. L. J. Chlumsky, of Washington County's Wesley community, accepted the call to conduct services at New Tabor Brethren Church. The congregation built a sanctuary at this location in 1893, the year of its formal organization as the Evangelical Czech-Moravian Brethren Church. The church building was destroyed by a tornado in 1915 and replaced by a new sanctuary later that year. New Tabor was the site of the Texas State Convention of Czech-Moravian Churches in 1919 during which independent congregations such as New Tabor's were accepted into the Unified Church denomination. The church organized a Mutual Aid Society in 1920, a Christian Sisters Society in 1927, and a Young People's Circle in 1936. The congregation's third sanctuary was constructed here in 1953. In 1962 a Men's Brotherhood was organized and in 1971 a nearby church cemetery was established. New Tabor continues to serve the community by sponsoring various outreach programs. (1993)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• George H.W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum — 18 mi
  The library of the forty-first president on the Texas A&M campus, opened in 1997, where George and Barbara Bush and their daughter Robin are buried in a family plot on the grounds.
• Lake Somerville State Park and Trailway — 19 mi
  Two park units on an 11,000-acre lake between Austin and College Station, joined by a thirteen-mile trailway for hikers, cyclists and riders with primitive camps along the way.
• Independence and Old Baylor Park — 24 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.
• Milam County Courthouse and Jail — 29 mi
  Cameron's 1892 Renaissance Revival courthouse and the 1895 St. Louis-built jail beside it, now the county museum, are listed together on the National Register.

More markers nearby

• Josef Masik — 0.9 mi
• Cooks Point United Methodist Church — 2.3 mi
• Fort Tenoxtitlan — 2.5 mi
• Elizabeth Chapel Methodist Church — 2.5 mi