New Tabor Brethren Church
Caldwell, Burleson County, Texas
Marker Inscription
About 1870 this area of Burleson County was settled by Czech-Moravian immigrants in search of fertile land and the religious freedom denied them in their native European homeland. Informal services were held twice a year in the family home of Joseph Macat until 1877, when The Rev. L. J. Chlumsky, of Washington County's Wesley community, accepted the call to conduct services at New Tabor Brethren Church. The congregation built a sanctuary at this location in 1893, the year of its formal organization as the Evangelical Czech-Moravian Brethren Church. The church building was destroyed by a tornado in 1915 and replaced by a new sanctuary later that year. New Tabor was the site of the Texas State Convention of Czech-Moravian Churches in 1919 during which independent congregations such as New Tabor's were accepted into the Unified Church denomination. The church organized a Mutual Aid Society in 1920, a Christian Sisters Society in 1927, and a Young People's Circle in 1936. The congregation's third sanctuary was constructed here in 1953. In 1962 a Men's Brotherhood was organized and in 1971 a nearby church cemetery was established. New Tabor continues to serve the community by sponsoring various outreach programs.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Around 1870, Czech-Moravian immigrants seeking fertile land and the religious freedom denied them in Europe settled this part of Burleson County. Services first met in a family home until a pastor answered the call in 1877, and the congregation built its first sanctuary in 1893, taking the name New Tabor. Rebuilt after a 1915 tornado and again in 1953, the church hosted the state convention of Czech-Moravian churches and nurtured a web of societies for men, women, and youth.
Why it matters
New Tabor preserves the faith and folkways of Texas's Czech-Moravian immigrants, one of the ethnic communities that gave Central Texas its distinctive character.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
New Tabor Cemetery
Caldwell, TX
New Tabor was settled by Czech and German immigrants in the 1870s and 1880s and named for the town of Tabor in their Bohemian homeland. In 1888 Henry Ginzel sold land to community trustees for a cemetery, whose first burials that year included an infant and a settler named Martin Fojt. The many infant and child graves speak to the hardships of pioneer life, while a cluster of 1919 deaths likely marks the influenza pandemic; more than 35 military veterans rest here among over 800 graves.
Josef Masik
Caldwell, TX
Josef Masik, born in Moravia in 1810, was certified to teach at just sixteen before emigrating to Texas in 1855 in search of freedom from oppression. After great hardship he resumed his profession in 1859, teaching as many as fifty pupils a year until his retirement in 1872. He is remembered as the first Czech teacher in Texas.
Cooks Point United Methodist Church
Cooks Point, TX
This congregation formed in 1881 to serve the German-speaking families settling Burleson County, organized largely through the efforts of Anna Duewall, who had arrived with her family only a year before. Known first as the German Methodist Church and led by the Rev. Jacob Ott, the fellowship met in members' homes until it built a sanctuary in 1883 and later took the name Cooks Point.
St. Mary's Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church
Caldwell, TX
Eastern European Catholic immigrants arriving in Burleson County in the late 1800s at first depended on visiting priests, with the earliest recorded Mass said in 1893. Two years later the settlers bought land and raised a sanctuary dedicated to Our Lady of Lourdes, adding a cemetery in 1899 and gaining full-time priests by 1908. Known as St. Mary's Our Lady of Lourdes, the parish grew steadily alongside the community it served.