Site of Victoria's First Church
Victoria, Victoria County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Erected by Martin De Leon, founder of Victoria, soon after his arrival in October, 1824. Priests serving there were Rev. Fathers Jose Miguel Muro, Jose Antonio Valdez, Antonio Diaz De Leon, O.M.F. The church was restored in 1840 by Most Rev. John Mary Odin, first Catholic Bishop of Texas. In 1850 Father Agustine Gardet had it removed to the northwest corner of the lot where Nazareth Convent now stands. (1936)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Soon after founding Victoria in October 1824, empresario Martín de León erected the town's first church, served in its early years by Catholic priests during the Mexican colonial period of Texas. Restored in 1840 by John Mary Odin, the first Catholic bishop of Texas, the building was moved in 1850 to the site where Nazareth Convent later stood. The marker recalls the religious roots of one of Texas's oldest towns.
Why it matters
The site marks the deep Spanish and Mexican Catholic heritage woven into Texas from its earliest settlements, a foundation that predates the state's American era.
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Related people
- · Martín de León
- · John Mary Odin
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
In Memory of Edward Conrad
Victoria, TX
Born in Pennsylvania in 1810, Edward Conrad came to Texas in 1835 on the eve of revolution. On March 2, 1836, he added his name to the Texas Declaration of Independence, casting his lot with the new republic. He died in Victoria that July while serving as an officer in the Army of the Republic of Texas, his life bound up entirely with Texas's fight for nationhood.
Site of Round Top House
Victoria, TX
Built before 1836 by Placido Benavides, son-in-law of Victoria's founder Martín De León, the Round Top House was known as "the Citadel of Victoria." When Comanche raiders swept through the region in the great raid of 1840, the sturdy house became a place of refuge for the town's frightened citizens.
Home of Empresario Martin De Leon
Victoria, TX
Born at Burgos, Mexico, in 1765, Martín De León rose as a Spanish army captain before turning empresario. Mexican land grants in 1824 and 1829 let him settle scores of families and found the town of Victoria—the only Texas colony where Mexican customs and traditions predominated. He died there in 1833.
Lorenzo Dow Heaton Home
Victoria, TX
Lorenzo Dow Heaton came to Texas from New York as a boy, clerked in his brother's Port Lavaca drug store, and by 1870 had opened a Heaton Bros. pharmacy of his own in Victoria. He built this house facing the old Market Square in the late 1870s from hand-hewn lumber and square nails, expanding it with porches and fireplaces over two decades. Its Southern Colonial pillars and Georgian entrance make it one of the very few Victoria homes surviving from that era.