Zion Lutheran Church

The Handbook of Texas says Walburg was first called Concordia. Henry Doering moved to the area in 1881 and opened a general store the next year, then in 1886 added a post office and renamed the place for his hometown, Walburg, Germany. By the 1890s it was a judicial seat and shipping point with a physician, drugstore, blacksmith, shoemaker, banking facilities and a cotton gin. Two Lutheran churches began in the 1880s, and the Handbook lists German, Wendish, Czechoslovakian, Austrian and Swiss families among the area's ethnic groups.

What the plaque says

Zion Lutheran Church Zion Lutheran Church of Concordia was established in 1882 as a place of worship for immigrants of German-Wendish descent. The Wends are a Slavic people from the German area of Lusatia, near the border with the Czech Republic and Poland. Settlers immigrated to Texas in the 1850s with the Reverend John Kilian. After founding a new homeland in present-day Serbin (Lee County), a number of the pioneers began migrating in the late 1870s to the northeastern part of Williamson County. Their settlement later became known as Walburg. Under the guidance of the Reverend J.H. Maisch, settlers organized the Zion Evangelica Lutheran Church of Concordia here. The church's nine charter members were Wilhelm Andres, August Doehre, Albert Krause, John Neitsch, Albert Ramm, Andreas Schneider, Jacob Schomber, John Schulze and Carl Streich. The church cemetery was also established in 1882, with the first recorded burial occurring the same year. Since education was of primary importance to the settlers, they also founded a school at that time which continues to educate students today. The congregation grew throughout the years despite challenges. A fierce June 1886 tornado wreaked havoc on the community and moved the church building off its foundation. Members have rebuilt and placed additions on both the school and the church. After over a century, Zion Lutheran Church and School continue to impact the residents of Walburg and Williamson County by serving as a place of worship and an educational institute. Since 1971, the church has served the community through the annual Wurstbraten sausage supper. (2006)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Williamson County Courthouse — 8.6 mi
  The fifth Williamson County courthouse, a Beaux Arts building by C. H. Page, rises over a Georgetown square of more than 50 Victorian-era buildings.
• Inner Space Cavern — 11 mi
  A Georgetown cave found in 1963 when highway engineers drilled test holes, holding Pleistocene fossils and 72-degree rooms that visitors reach by an artificial tunnel.
• The Round Rock — 17 mi
  A table-shaped stone in Brushy Creek gave Round Rock its name in 1854; the Chisholm Trail crossed the creek near it, and Old Town stayed behind when the railroad pulled the town east.
• Temple Railroad and Heritage Museum — 29 mi
  The Santa Fe depot of 1911 in a railroad town that began in 1880 as a construction camp, now a museum with locomotives and cars parked beside the active rail yard.

More markers nearby

• Community of Theon — 1.4 mi
• Daniel Harrison — 4.1 mi
• Cornhill Cemetery — 4.1 mi
• Corn Hill Community — 4.4 mi