Six Mile Presbyterian Church
Port Lavaca, Calhoun County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Worship services in the community that became known as Six Mile began as early as 1894, when traveling ministers such as the Rev. Anton Motycka and the Rev. Adolf Chlumsky conducted religious services once a month in the local schoolhouse. In 1990 the Rev. Mr. Chlumsky led the first area confirmation classes, and Presbyterian services began in 1909. The Rev. H. E. Beseda, Sr., formally organized the Czech Presbyterian church in 1911. A church building, erected on the site in 1923 and destroyed by a hurricane in 1942, was replaced in 1943. Most services were conducted in Czech until 1956. The church remains an active congregation central to life in the Six Mile Community. (1998)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Worship in the Six Mile community began around 1894, when traveling ministers held monthly services in the local schoolhouse. Presbyterian services took root by 1909, and in 1911 the Rev. H. E. Beseda, Sr., formally organized a Czech Presbyterian church here. A 1923 building lost to a 1942 hurricane was quickly rebuilt, and services were held mostly in Czech until 1956, keeping the immigrants' mother tongue alive at the altar.
Why it matters
This congregation shows how immigrant communities used their churches to preserve language and identity while slowly weaving into American life.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Rev. Anton Motycka
- · Rev. Adolf Chlumsky
- · Rev. H. E. Beseda, Sr.
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Six Mile Cemetery
Port Lavaca, TX
This five-acre burial ground served the Czech-German farming settlement first known as Marekville, with its earliest grave dating to 1897. Formally deeded to a cemetery association in 1899, it took the Six Mile name as the community renamed itself around 1907. Among those resting here is Anton Machacek, who served in the Austro-Hungarian Army before immigrating, alongside veterans of American and world conflicts.
Six Mile-Royal Community
Port Lavaca, TX
In December 1894 the Phillips Investment Company deeded land here to Josef Marek and John Drgac, and the settlement—soon called Marekville—drew Czech and German farmers with a bumper first cotton crop. A school rose in 1895 and a post office named Royal opened in 1905, while the enduring "Six Mile" name recalled that it was six miles to water from Port Lavaca. Though the post office closed in 1910, the farming community kept growing for generations.
Don Martin De Leon
Port Lavaca, TX
After Mexico won independence from Spain, it used the empresario system to settle Texas with loyal colonists, and in April 1824 Don Martín de León secured a grant—second in success only to Stephen F. Austin's. Born in Nuevo Santander and a former captain in the Spanish military, de León established the town of Guadalupe Victoria and, by 1831, a colony reaching across much of modern Calhoun County west of Matagorda Bay. A port near present-day Port Lavaca gave the colony vital access to trade and supplies.
Salem Lutheran Church
Port Lavaca, TX
Salem Lutheran grew out of the German Lutheran families who reached Texas through the ports of Indianola and Galveston in the 1800s. Members of the Kemper, Knipling, Rosenbaum, and Wehmeyer families organized the congregation in 1902, worshipping in German until 1920 and dedicating their own church in 1924. The congregation later built anew and moved to its Six Mile Road home in 1967.