Saint Joseph Catholic Church

The families who settled Gazeta came out of Upper Silesia, then ruled by Prussia, and the road that brought Poles to Texas began with one priest. Leopold Moczygemba, a Franciscan serving German parishes, wrote home urging relatives and neighbors to leave hard economic conditions and Prussian domination. Almost 200 peasants sailed in the winter of 1854-55 and founded Panna Maria in Karnes County, the oldest permanent Polish settlement in the United States. Drought and better times at home ended the migration by 1856-57. The Victoria County group came in 1858.

What the plaque says

Saint Joseph Catholic Church A group of Polish immigrants from Upper Silesia (Prussian-occupied Poland) moved to this area in 1858, after a brief settlement in Karnes County. Here the prairies could be plowed and oaks could be felled for building shelter. They called their community (then 1.5 mi. W) Gazeta after nearby Garcitas Creek. Traveling priests served the religious needs of the settlers, while marriages, baptisms, and funerals were recorded at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Victoria (14.5 mi. SW). In 1873 Frank Garvel conveyed one acre in Gazeta for a church, which was dedicated to St. Theresa. After 1886, the area's settlement shifted to the town of Inez, established on a new railroad line. In 1889 the Catholic Church acquired three lots here for $40, and the Gazeta church was dismantled and moved to Inez. Lumber dealer Henry C. Koontz directed the reconstruction, and Father Thomas Moczyjemba dedicated the church to St. Joseph in 1890. The first resident pastor, Father Henry Pensick was appointed in 1933, also serving mission churches at La Salle (10.5 mi SE) and Bloomington (19 mi SSW). In 1963 a fire destroyed the frame church building and damaged the rectory. A new brick structure was quickly erected by the congregation and dedicated in 1964. Texas Sesquicentennial 1836-1986

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Museum of the Coastal Bend — 13 mi
  Victoria College's museum of thirteen thousand years on the middle Texas coast, from Clovis hunters and Karankawa potters to La Salle's lost Fort St. Louis and the first ranches.
• De León Plaza — 15 mi
  The central plaza of Guadalupe Victoria, the only predominantly Mexican colony in Texas, founded by Martín De León in 1824 and taken from his family after 1836.
• Half Moon Reef Lighthouse and Linnville — 21 mi
  The last screw-pile lighthouse of the Texas coast, brought ashore at Port Lavaca, a town founded by refugees from Linnville, the port Buffalo Hump's Comanches burned in August 1840.
• Fannin Battleground State Historic Site — 31 mi
  The open prairie east of Goliad where Fannin's retreating column formed a square short of the Coleto Creek timber on March 19, 1836, and surrendered the next day.

More markers nearby

• Fort St. Louis — steps away
• Saint Joseph Catholic Cemetery — 0.3 mi
• Site of The Johnston-Huston Duel — 7.6 mi
• Bennett and West Ranch — 8.4 mi