Rutersville

John Rabb and other Methodists founded Rutersville; the site on the La Bahía Road was surveyed in 1838 and incorporated by the Republic on January 26, 1839, and on July 1 the buyers closed on the Franklin Lewis league and gave seventy-six acres to the college. After the Methodist college passed out of the church's hands, the First German Evangelical Lutheran Synod chose Rutersville in 1872 for a college of its own, drawn by the old buildings. It opened in 1873 as a free German-English school, and the property was sold in 1881.

What the plaque says

Rutersville Founded in 1838 upon the recommendation of Dr. Martin Ruter (1785-1838), as a site for an institution of higher learning. Named in honor of Dr. Ruter, a pioneer Methodist missionary who entered Texas on Nov. 21, 1837 and weakened by his travels, died on May 16, 1838. Later in the year of his death, a company of ten Methodists bought a tract of Land, platted the townsite, and began to build Rutersville. In 1840, Rutersville College was chartered by the fourth Congress of the Republic of Texas as the Republic's first Protestant college. The legislation specified the school should not be exclusively for the benefit of Methodists, and it was patronized by families of various faiths. Rutersville students were noted for their loyalty to neighbors, sometimes spending days away from class, pursuing Indians. The Rev. Chauncey Richardson, A. M. (1802-1852), whose grave is nearby, was first president of the college. The campus was half a mile southeast of this marker. After the Civil War ended in 1865, the original inhabitants of Rutersville sold their property. It was later purchased by German immigrants, whose descendants now live here in large numbers. (1972)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Texas Wendish Heritage Museum — 16 mi
  A museum at Serbin of the Wends, a Slavic people from Lusatia whose congregation of nearly 600 crossed on the Ben Nevis in 1854, losing seventy-three to cholera on the way.
• Lake Somerville State Park and Trailway — 23 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.

More markers nearby

• Asa Hill of Rutersville — steps away
• Rutersville College — 0.4 mi
• Site of First Methodist Annual Conference in Texas — 0.4 mi
• Oldenburg — 2.7 mi