Trinity Episcopal Church

Trinity's first church building did not last. The Living Church reports that the parish was founded on January 4, 1851, held its first confirmation on June 22 of that year, and first worshiped in a Masonic lodge. The standalone brick church that followed collapsed in 1868, according to the parish website, and the collapse nearly ended the congregation, which survived. In March 2023 almost half the members left to form another parish. Trinity marked its 175th anniversary on January 4, 2026, with a parade and a time capsule meant to be opened in 2051.

What the plaque says

Trinity Episcopal Church One of the oldest Episcopal churches in Texas. An outgrowth of 1840s work in Caddo Lake area by the Rev. William Steel of Louisiana, and of appeals for priests made by Frances Cox Henderson (wife of the diplomat, Governor, U.S. Senator, J. Pinckney Henderson) to the church in the United States. Trinity parish was founded Jan. 4, 1851, with 22 members, by the Rev. Henry Sansom (1821-1903), who was rector 1851-55. Original membership included E. G. Benners, later a priest; also the Key family, who remain in parish a century later. Communicants have included Confederate Generals Benjamin Huger and Louis T. Wigfall, and 20th century jurist T. Whitfield Davidson. The Rev. Edwin A. Wagner (rector intermittently, 1859-75), the Rev. C. C. Kramer (1909-14), the Rev. C. S. Sargent (1914-21) and others built spiritual strength of the parish and advocated a permanent church edifice to replace successive early structures. Present church was built in 1926-26, when the Rev. Charles S. Monroe was rector. It was dedicated by Bishop Clinton S. Quin, July 25, 1926. Architect was J. W. Northrup, Jr., Houston. The Rev. Henry F. Selcer (1930-56) achieved record for longest service as rector. Parish in 1972 had 508 members. Its day school renders community service. (1973)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Starr Family Home State Historic Site — 0.2 mi
  Maplecroft, the 1871 Greek Revival house Frank Starr built in Marshall, with Ruth Starr Blake's glass and china, an 1880s kitchen restored in 2019 and a retirement home built for a formerly enslaved person.
• Harrison County Historical Museum — 0.2 mi
  Galleries in Marshall's 1901 courthouse that run from the Caddo to the present, with Wiley College, Lady Bird Johnson's inaugural gown and a military gallery across the square in Memorial City Hall.
• Texas and Pacific Railway Depot and Museum — 0.5 mi
  The only surviving building of the Texas and Pacific shops at Marshall, a 1912 Mission Revival depot saved from demolition in the 1990s, still an Amtrak stop, with a railway museum and a Mikado locomotive.
• Caddo Lake National Wildlife Refuge — 15 mi
  Wetlands and woods on part of a former ammunition plant, now a refuge for wood ducks, prothonotary warblers and alligator snapping turtles, with four easy trails and a free visitor center on a Ramsar lake.

More markers nearby

• First Baptist Church — steps away
• The Library Movement in Marshall — steps away
• Girlhood Home of Southern Beauty Lucy Holcombe Pickens — steps away
• Site of Temple Moses Montefiore — steps away