First Methodist Church of Fredericksburg
Fredericksburg, Gillespie County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Oldest Methodist church in the Hill Country, founded 1849 as a German mission by the Rev. Eduard Schneider. The charter members: Melchior and Rosine Bauer, Johann and Margaretha Durst, Friedrich and Sophie Ellebracht, Ernst and Dorothea Houy, Ferdinand and Maria Kneese, Ludwig Kneese, Heinrich and Catharine Steihl, Jacob and Catharine Treibs, Fritz and Fredericka (Mary) Winkel. In 1855, during pastorate of the Rev. C. A. Grote, a 40 x 60-foot native stone church was built. It still serves after 1912-14, 1923, and 1948-49 remodelings.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Founded in 1849 as a German-language mission under the Rev. Eduard Schneider, this is the oldest Methodist congregation in the Texas Hill Country, planted among the German immigrant families who had recently settled Fredericksburg. The roster of charter couples reads like a directory of that immigrant community. By the mid-1850s the congregation had raised a sturdy native-stone church that, through successive remodelings, still stands and serves.
Why it matters
The church embodies the deep German immigrant imprint on the Texas Hill Country, where Old World language and faith took root in a new American landscape.
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Related people
- · Rev. Eduard Schneider
- · Rev. C. A. Grote
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Sunday Houses
Fredericksburg, TX
German settlers who farmed the distant countryside around Fredericksburg needed a foothold in town, so they built these compact "Sunday Houses" — a single room with a lean-to kitchen and a half-story loft reached by an outside stair. Families used them on weekends when they came to trade or worship, and during school terms, religious instruction, or illness. Built from the 1890s into the 1920s, most were frame, a few of rock, and some later became snug retirement homes for aging German farmers.
Dambach-Besier Home
Fredericksburg, TX
This rock house was probably built by F. Dambach, who bought the lot for $70 in 1867 and sold it two years later for a handsome $450. Unlike Fredericksburg's famous weekend "Sunday Houses," it was a full-time home. Widow Anna Besier acquired it in 1881, added the porch, and moved into town so her four children could reach school—keeping cows across the street and selling milk, butter, and cheese.
St. Mary's Catholic Church
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As its congregation swelled in the late 1800s, St. Mary's parish resolved to build a grand new sanctuary, completed in 1906 to designs by prominent San Antonio architect Leo M. Dielmann and built by contractor Jacob Wagner. Its Gothic-inspired native stone rises to a dominant corner tower and spire holding three bells carried over from the parish's 1863 church. Stained-glass windows, some picturing the builder's own daughter, filled the sanctuary between 1906 and 1917.
Old St. Mary's Church (Die Alte Kirche)
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Old St. Mary's traces to 1846 and the first German settlers of Fredericksburg, who replaced an earlier log church with this stone building, finished in 1863 under Rev. Peter Baunach. It served as the parish church until a larger sanctuary opened in 1906, then took on new life—including as a schoolhouse. Its steeple, pointed-arch windows, and stone buttresses make it a fine, early example of Hill Country Gothic.