Saint John's Episcopal Church

The plaque moves quickly from 1874 to 1906; the parish register fills in those years. The Rev. Thomas J. Morris, rector from 1874 to 1879, saw the first church built on Milam Street. A Ladies Aid Society organized in November 1884 kept services going through thin times. From 1891 the Rev. Thomas B. Lawson served Columbus together with Richmond and Eagle Lake, where an Episcopal mission had begun in 1880, and he died in 1900 at 82. The parish then stood without a priest in 1900-01 and again from 1904 to 1906, as the town's trade faded.

What the plaque says

Saint John's Episcopal Church The earliest Episcopal worship service known to have been held in Columbus occurred in 1848. At that time services were held infrequently, conducted by clergy traveling through the area. The Rev. Hannibal Pratt came to Columbus in 1855, and Saint John's Parish was officially organized and admitted to the Diocese of Texas on April 14, 1856. Worship services for Saint John's parishioners were held in a variety of locations, including the large castle-like home of Robert Robson, the County Courthouse, and the Methodist church. A lot on Milam Street was purchased in 1871 and a church building was constructed by 1874. It was later sold to the Church of Christ. Property at this site was purchased in 1906 with proceeds from the will of Mrs. Fannie Darden and money raised by the Ladies Guild. A house located here was used first as a rectory and later as a parish house. A new brick church, built with funds willed to the congregation by Mrs. Nannie Thatcher Andrus, was consecrated in 1942 by Bishop Clinton S. Quin. Charter members of Saint John's included citizens of the Republic of Texas, veterans of the Texas Revolution, local civic leaders, and state officials. (1990)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Stafford Opera House — 0.2 mi
  A cattleman's bank and theater of 1886 on the Columbus square, in a river town Sam Houston burned in 1836 and a county marked by a long feud and a 1935 lynching.
• Attwater Prairie Chicken National Wildlife Refuge — 16 mi
  Ten thousand acres of native coastal prairie northeast of Eagle Lake, kept for a critically endangered grouse, many of whose birds are hatched in captivity and released here.
• Saints Cyril and Methodius Catholic Church (Dubina) — 18 mi
  The church of Texas's first Czech settlement, under a sky-blue painted ceiling that was whitewashed in the 1950s and brought back from faint traces by its own parishioners.
• St. John the Baptist Catholic Church (Ammannsville) — 20 mi
  A wooden Carpenter Gothic church built in 1919 after storm and fire took two before it, its dusty-rose interior painted by an artist whose name was lost for decades.

More markers nearby

• Joseph Jefferson Mansfield — steps away
• Robert Henry Harrison, M.D. — steps away
• The Columbus Tap Railway — steps away
• Joseph V. Frnka — steps away