Trinity Lutheran Church

Clara's first post office closed in 1892, six years after it opened, and the town counted thirty people in 1890 and fifty by 1925. Oil came close. In 1917 flush production in the old Burkburnett field came from the Prechel, Ramming, Serrein and Ruyle leases southwest of the Clara post office, and Humble's No. 13 Serrein gave 2,000 barrels in its first twenty-four hours. The one-room Clara school joined Common School District No. 9 in 1929 and the Burkburnett system in 1944. Clara reported 100 residents from 1966 to 2000.

What the plaque says

Herman and Clara (Vogel) Specht platted the Clara townsite in 1886, and the community rapidly swelled with German immigrants. The Rev. Francis M. Rudi of Wichita Falls began to conduct Lutheran worship services in the Clara public schoolhouse in 1899. The congregation assembled there adopted a church constitution on May 24, 1900, with 16 charter members, and called the Rev. Mr. Rudi as their pastor in December. He taught the church's parochial school in addition to his other duties. The congregation erected a church building and a parsonage in 1901 and a larger school building in 1908. In 1918 they hired a full-time school teacher. During World War I, the pastor began to preach in English twice a month, and classes were held only in English. By 1945 the church had 359 members. The congregation continues in the traditions of its founders. (2000)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• World's Littlest Skyscraper — 17 mi
  A four-story brick tower in downtown Wichita Falls, 40 feet tall and 10 feet wide, the leftover of a 1919 oil-boom office deal in which, the story goes, investors misread inches as feet.
• Kell House Museum — 17 mi
  The 1909 Classic Revival house of Frank Kell, the miller and railroad builder who helped make Wichita Falls a city, shown by guided tour with its family furniture still in place.
• Lake Arrowhead State Park — 29 mi
  A prairie park on the north shore of the Wichita Falls water-supply lake, which drowned the town of Halsell in 1965-66, with mesquite campsites, a lighted pier and more than 200 bird species.

More markers nearby

• Receiver Bridge — 1.0 mi
• Bridgetown — 1.5 mi
• Tenth Cavalry Creek — 3.7 mi
• Thrift — 3.9 mi