Serbin

The granite credits Kilian with one settlement; within sixteen years Serbin had two Lutheran congregations. The quarrel was over language. German-speaking members wanted German services, and a teacher installed in 1868, Ernest Leubner, spoke no Wendish. Kilian resigned in May 1870, the Wends called him back, and about 220 members left to form St. Peter under Pastor John Pallmer. A lawyers' agreement of September 20, 1870 gave them fifty acres, the old organ and $628.23. St. Peter lasted forty-four years and rejoined St. Paul in 1914; in the end the mother church, too, gave up Wendish for German.

What the plaque says

Serbin Here in 1854 under the leadership of Rev. John Kilian Ev. Lutheran Pastor about 600 Wends seeking religious liberty established the first Wendish settlement in Texas. Erected by the State of Texas 1936 Serbin Trilingual (Wendish-German-English) community founded 1854 by 588 Wends under leadership of the Rev. John Kilian. The Rev. Kilian (Evangelical Lutheran) named place Serbin because the Wends were descendants of Serbs. A thriving town 1865-1890; had grocery, dry goods, jewelry, drug and music stores; shops of wagon maker, blacksmith, saddler; post office, 3 doctors, 2 dentists. On Smithville-Houston oxcart road-- sending out cotton, other produce, and hauling in staples. Decline began about 1890 as railroads bypassed settlement by several miles. (1969)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Texas Wendish Heritage Museum — steps away
  A museum at Serbin of the Wends, a Slavic people from Lusatia whose congregation of nearly 600 crossed on the Ben Nevis in 1854, losing seventy-three to cholera on the way.
• Monument Hill and Kreische Brewery State Historic Sites — 17 mi
  A shared tomb on the Colorado River bluff for the men of the Dawson fight and the black bean lottery, beside the ruins of a German stonemason's spring-fed brewery.
• Round Top and Festival Hill — 18 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.
• Bastrop State Park — 18 mi
  The westernmost loblolly pines in the United States, cut off from the East Texas forest by a hundred miles of post oak, burned almost entirely in 2011 and growing back.

More markers nearby

• Holy Cross Cemetery — 3.5 mi
• Grassyville Cemetery — 5.1 mi
• St. Paul Baptist Church — 5.4 mi
• City of Giddings — 5.5 mi