Salem Lutheran Church

Malone was a railroad bargain. Alonzo Dru Walling laid out a town named for himself in 1884 or 1885, the Handbook of Texas says, and moved it two miles east in 1902 to catch the International and Great Northern. When the Trinity and Brazos Valley planned a crossing in 1903, Walling soothed the I-GN president, William Malone, by proposing a new town just west where the lines would meet. Lots sold at auction on December 2, 1903, with 125 people already there. Walling then sued to force the I-GN to build a station, which made Malone and doomed Walling.

What the plaque says

Salem Lutheran Church This church reflects the rich German heritage of this area of Hill County. German immigrants, who settled first in Washington County, began moving here in the 1880s. On June 6, 1886, fifteen families joined together to organize the Salem Lutheran Congregation. The Rev. J. C. Rieger of West held worship services in homes until completion of the first building. Salem community, which the church first served, was a forerunner of nearby Malone. For over a century, Salem Lutheran Church has led in the area's educational and religious development. Texas Sesquicentennial 1836-1986

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Hill County Courthouse — 14 mi
  Wesley C. Dodson's limestone Second Empire courthouse of 1890 on the Hillsboro square, gutted by fire on New Year's Day 1993 and rededicated in 1999 after a rebuilding that two Willie Nelson concerts helped pay for.
• Petroleum Industry Park — 27 mi
  The pipes and drilling tower mark where a city water well struck oil on June 9, 1894, the start of the first Texas field to produce oil and gas in important quantities.
• Blind Lemon Memorial Cemetery — 28 mi
  The Freestone County grave of the Texas blues singer Blind Lemon Jefferson, who recorded for Paramount in Chicago from 1926 and died there in December 1929.
• Waco Mammoth National Monument — 29 mi
  A bone bed on the Bosque River where a nursery herd of at least 19 Columbian mammoths was trapped and drowned by floodwater 65,000 to 72,000 years ago, left in place under a dig shelter.

More markers nearby

• Pelham Community — 5.1 mi
• Ash Creek (Pelham) School — 5.2 mi
• Bynum School — 6.2 mi
• Town of Penelope — 6.7 mi