Pilgrim Presbyterian Church

The church was built for a community that already had three schools. Burnett School, named for a local family, opened in 1875, Salt Creek School in 1878, and Lake Grove, a school for Black children, in 1883; all three belonged to the Pilgrim Creek district. In 1884 the Pilgrim Lake post office served about 100 people, a Presbyterian church, a steam gristmill and a cotton gin. The name was shortened to Pilgrim in 1900. A tomato cannery opened in 1905, and in 1914 the town had a general store and a hotel.

What the plaque says

Pilgrim Presbyterian Church The early Gonzales County settlement of Pilgrim was named in honor of Thomas J. Pilgrim, a noted area educator who had received a Republic of Texas land grant here in 1838. In 1881 residents of the pioneer community established a Union Sunday School in a nearby schoolhouse (1.5 miles S). Early members of the congregation represented the Presbyterian, Baptist, Methodist and Quaker faiths. On November 23, 1883, several Union Church members formed this congregation under the direction of the Rev. J. J. Hodges of Wrightsboro. Begun as a Cumberland Presbyterian Fellowship with the congregational name of Pilgrim Lake, it was an early member of the Guadalupe Presbytery of San Antonio and Austin. A sanctuary was built here in 1886 on land donated by Crawford Burnett. Church members were assisted by local residents in construction and furnishing the building, which became the site of many early camp meetings and summer revivals. Despite a declining area population, the Pilgrim Presbyterian Church has remained active and now serves as a focal point of the surrounding rural region and as a reminder of the pioneer settlers whose descendants still live here. (1982)

Where it stands

More markers nearby

• Community of Pilgrim — 0.9 mi
• Salt Flats of Pilgrim Lake — 2.5 mi
• Community of Wrightsboro — 6.9 mi
• Old Smiley Lake and Townsite — 7.5 mi