Sacred Heart Catholic Church

Wadsworth was a land company town. Ambrose Plotner and John Stoddard bought the Kemp pasture in October 1902 and formed the Colonial Land Company, naming the town for early settler William Wadsworth. The church's own history dates the town to 1909, which is why the plaque does. John and Anna Ottis, Catholics from Okarche, Oklahoma, had been driving three miles to Mass at St. Francis in the Polish Village before the two-story frame church and school, 75 by 60 feet, was consecrated in November 1913. The school lasted two years, undone by poor harvests.

What the plaque says

Sacred Heart Catholic Church Early residents of Wadsworth (est. 1909) John H. and Anna Ottis received help from Galveston Bishop N.A. Gallagher, the Rev. George Montreuil, and other Catholics in the area to erect the 2-story Sacred Heart Catholic Church/School building in 1912 at the corner of 1st and Ave. H. Though the school closed after 2 years Catholic services were continued. Road construction prompted the Rev. M.J. O'Regan and the congregation to reassemble the original sanctuary here in 1924. Sacred Heart continues to serve the community as a mission of Bay City's Holy Cross Catholic Church. (1993)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Levi Jordan Plantation State Historic Site — 21 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 — 29 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

• Selkirk Island — 5.9 mi
• Lukefahr School Community — 8.5 mi
• Battle Island — 8.5 mi
• Vine Grove Christian Church — 9.0 mi