St. Mark's Lutheran Church
Cuero, DeWitt County, Texas
Marker Inscription
The great gulf storm of 1875 in Indianola brought many Lutherans to Cuero. By 1880 German Lutherans were meeting for services conducted by pastors from nearby communities. The 1886 destruction of Indianola brought more Lutherans, and St. Mark's was organized by German Home Mission Board of the Lutheran General Council on July 18, 1886, with 30 charter members. Sunday School was organized Jan. 2, 1887. Ladies' Aid was formed in 1889 to raise funds for building. The first church building, erected in 1889, installed a copper ship's bell previously used on the Lutheran church in Indianola. First parsonage was built 1905; present church, 1939, with old copper bell as prayer bell; second parsonage, 1953; fellowship hall, 1959. The Luther League was organized 1902; Brotherhood, 1918; Women's Missionary Society, 1921, merging with Ladies' Aid, 1955. Dr. L. C. Kleinecke was Sunday School superintendent 1889-1949. Ten pastors served from 1886 to 1972: J. Butterman, Cornelius Ziesman, John Hurtzig, Reinhold Schubert, William Utesch, A.A. Hahn (two terms), Frank F. Eberhardt, John W. Kern, John A. Jacobs, H. A. Hanson. St. Mark's has been affiliated with Iowa Synod, United Lutheran Church in America; and with Lutheran Church in America. (1972)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
The great Gulf storms that battered the port of Indianola in 1875 and destroyed it in 1886 scattered its German Lutheran families inland to Cuero, where St. Mark's was organized in 1886 with thirty charter members. The congregation's first church, built in 1889, installed a copper ship's bell salvaged from the drowned Indianola church—a bell still rung as a prayer bell in the present 1939 sanctuary. Aid societies, a Sunday school, and youth groups grew alongside it over the following decades.
Why it matters
St. Mark's carries the memory of Indianola, the vanished Texas port whose German immigrants rebuilt their community—and literally its church bell—farther inland after disaster.
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