St. Peter's Lutheran Church

Gay Hill began as Chriesman Settlement and took its name in 1840 from the two storekeepers, Thomas Gay and William Carroll Jackson Hill, when the Republic opened a post office. In the 1870s the town had a Grange, a Democratic Club and a Republican party that stayed strong among its Black residents. When the Santa Fe railway came near in 1881, the town moved two miles west to meet it and left Old Gay Hill behind. Germans were the largest group by 1900, which is the world this congregation grew in. The last store closed in 1971.

What the plaque says

St. Peter's Lutheran Church This congregation was founded by German immigrants who came to the Gay Hill community in the 1880s. In 1884, they purchased land at this site and constructed a church building. Pastors of neighboring congregations held worship services here until The Rev. Ed Schuelke arrived in 1885 to become the first full-time minister. The German language was used in all official church records until 1937. Members have included prominent community citizens and descendants of the founders. (1985)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Independence and Old Baylor Park — 7.9 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.
• Lake Somerville State Park and Trailway — 15 mi
  Two park units on an 11,000-acre lake between Austin and College Station, joined by a thirteen-mile trailway for hikers, cyclists and riders with primitive camps along the way.
• Round Top and Festival Hill — 19 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.
• Washington-on-the-Brazos State Historic Site — 19 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.

More markers nearby

• Birthplace of Hedwig T. Kniker — steps away
• La Bahia Road — 1.4 mi
• Glenblythe Plantation, Home of Thomas Affleck — 1.9 mi
• Holly Oaks — 2.4 mi