Saint Paul Lutheran Church

This church's road shares its name with a vanished town. The Handbook of Texas places Sempronius on the south bank of Caney Creek, about eight miles north of Bellville, settled by Anglo-Americans in 1837, with a post office from 1846. German immigrants spurred its growth in the early 1880s, and by 1885 it had 150 people, a school, a gin, a steam gristmill and two churches. The Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe passed it by, residents moved to Kenney and elsewhere, the post office closed in 1905, and the site was abandoned by the end of World War I.

What the plaque says

Saint Paul Lutheran Church Lutheran clergy served people in this area as early as 1886, but this congregation did not officially begin until 1890. The first worship service was held in the home of Mr. and Mrs. John Stern, and Henry Stern deeded land for a church and cemetery. The Rev. Renatus Fiedler served as first pastor, and a church building was dedicated on October 12, 1890. The congregation also operated a day school for a time. Some worship services were conducted in the German language until the 1940s. The original sanctuary was replaced in 1965. (1990)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Independence and Old Baylor Park — 16 mi
  A crossroads north of Brenham that was the richest town in Texas when it won Baylor University in 1845, refused the railroad, and lost the college to Waco and Belton in 1886.
• Star of the Republic Museum — 20 mi
  A star-shaped museum of the Republic of Texas years, 1836 to 1846, built at Washington-on-the-Brazos after a Brenham campaign and opened on March 1, 1970.
• Washington-on-the-Brazos State Historic Site — 20 mi
  The townsite on the Brazos where delegates met in a cold, unfinished hall in March 1836 to declare Texas independent, with Independence Hall rebuilt and Anson Jones's Barrington farm worked as in 1850.
• Round Top and Festival Hill — 21 mi
  A German village on the old La Bahía Road, named for a house tower, with an 1867 stone church, a Fourth of July kept since 1851 and a concert hall a pianist built without blueprints.

More markers nearby

• John Wesley Kenney — 2.8 mi
• Pleasant Hill School — 3.4 mi
• Brenham — 4.3 mi
• Rosedale Nursery — 4.6 mi