Trinity Lutheran Church

The pastor the plaque credits with the longest tenure was also a serious naturalist. Gotthilf Birkmann, born in Illinois in 1854 and trained at Concordia in St. Louis, began collecting insects about 1885 after seeing Ludolph Heilingbrodt's collection at an exposition in New Orleans. He moved from butterflies to bees and wasps because they took up less space, and in 1899 he published a list of 307 kinds collected at Fedor. Many specimens went to Harvard's Museum of Comparative Zoology, and a good number proved new to science. Failing eyesight ended the work about 1920; he died in 1944.

What the plaque says

Trinity Lutheran Church Since organization on March 11, 1870, the center of religious, educational and social life in Fedor community. First to sign constitution of congregation were A. Handrick, A. Symmank, C. Dube, P. Pahn, A. Suchy, A. Bleumel. First pastor was the Rev. Johann Pallmer. On original board of elders were G. Boback, A. Lehmann, G. Schroeder. Given 50 acres of land by Boback, church bought another acre for building site. Parochial school was opened by the Rev. John A. Proft, first resident pastor. Longest tenure (nearly half a century, 1876 to 1923) was by Pastor G. Birkmann. (1970)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Texas Wendish Heritage Museum — 15 mi
  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.
• Bastrop State Park — 20 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.
• Lake Somerville State Park and Trailway — 21 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 — 28 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.

More markers nearby

• Moab Community — 3.6 mi
• St. John Lutheran Church — 5.8 mi
• King's Highway - Camino Real - Old San Antonio Road — 6.1 mi
• King's Highway - Camino Real - Old San Antonio Road — 6.2 mi