St. Luke Lutheran Church of Olney

Olney was settled in 1879 and 1880 by Boone McCarty, L. Pankonon and the Neely brothers, and Pitts Neal joined the Neelys to set up a site for ranchers' annual roundups. In 1889 John W. Groves donated two acres for a townsite and J. M. Brisco built the first store. G. W. Hutchings won a post office by agreeing to carry the mail from Farmer. The name came either from Olney, Illinois, or from Secretary of State Richard Olney. The first school opened in 1891, and the town incorporated in 1909, moving a mile north to meet the railroad.

What the plaque says

In 1883 when this area was still a roundup point on the cattle range, German families of the Lutheran faith began settling in the Salt Creek Valley. The following year William Bernhardt received a bible, prayer book, and a devotional book or "Hauspostille" from a visiting cousin. The families began using the books to conduct religious services in their rock and log cabins. Henry Kunkel, the pioneering son of a large family from Posen, Germany, acted as leader. They also started a Sunday School. In 1886 the first formal service was conducted by Pastor Bartelo of Hamilton County. Through the years, several Lutheran pastors conducted worship services for the fellowship. In 1896 the Lutheran Board of Missions assigned Pastor F. M Rudi to this field. On Reformation Day, October 31, 1897, Pastor Rudi officially organized the St. Luke Lutheran Church. The members met in the Terrapin School building until 1914 when a church house was constructed near their homes at a site which was two miles northwest of Olney. A second structure was built in 1926 at the same location. Many of the church members moved into Olney. In 1967 the congregation relocated in town and built this structure. (1979)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Fort Belknap — 15 mi
  The 1851 northern anchor of the first Texas frontier forts, on the Brazos below Newcastle, a Butterfield stop and the post beside the Brazos Reservation until its people were driven out in 1859.
• Royal Theater — 18 mi
  Archer City's movie house, burned in 1965, given a false front for The Last Picture Show and brought back by the town in the 1990s as a working stage on Main Street.
• Old Post Office Museum and Art Center — 21 mi
  Graham's 1936 Art Moderne post office, with a New Deal mural by Alexandre Hogue inside, now the free museum of Young County in the town where the Texas cattle raisers first organized.

More markers nearby

• Extinct Town of Anarene — 9.8 mi
• Megargel — 10 mi
• St. Mary of the Assumption Catholic Church — 11 mi
• Archer County — 12 mi