Our Lady of the Holy Rosary Catholic Church
Caldwell, Burleson County, Texas
Marker Inscription
In 1884, Catholic settlers from Czechoslavakia first arrived in this area. They named their settlement Frenstat for the community they had left, Frenstat Rod Radhost, Moravia. By 1887, the Rev. Joseph Chromcik regularly visited Frenstat. That year, Adolf Polansky sold land to the Galveston Diocese for school, church and cemetery purposes. Members met in the schoolhouse until building a sanctuary in 1889. During the next few decades they formed men's and women's service organizations. Since that time, the congregation, now part of the Austin Diocese, has grown in membership and facilities, which include a grotto of the Virgin Mary of Lourdes. (2005)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Czech Catholic settlers reached this part of Burleson County in 1884, naming their new home Frenstat after the Moravian town they had left behind. The traveling priest Joseph Chromcik began serving them, and in 1887 Adolf Polansky sold land to the Galveston Diocese for a church, school, and cemetery. Worshiping first in a schoolhouse and then a sanctuary raised in 1889, the congregation grew over the decades to include a grotto honoring the Virgin Mary of Lourdes.
Why it matters
The parish is a monument to the Czech-Moravian immigrants who transplanted their faith and place-names to the Texas prairie, shaping a distinctive ethnic Catholic heartland.
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Related people
- · Rev. Joseph Chromcik
- · Adolf Polansky
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Frenstat Cemetery
Caldwell, TX
In 1884 several Moravian Czech families settled this Burleson County community and named it Frenstat after their homeland town in Moravia. The Polansky family deeded twenty acres in 1887 for a school, church, and cemetery, and the congregation built Our Lady of Holy Rosary Catholic Church nearby. The first burial by a priest came in 1890, and the cemetery remains the resting place of hundreds of area residents, priests, and veterans.
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Caldwell Masonic Cemetery
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