St. Paul Church
Cibolo, Guadalupe County, Texas
Marker Inscription
This congregation began about 1876 with German Lutheran worship services conducted by the Rev. T. Frehner and Oscar Samuel in private homes and a schoolhouse. A congregation, called St. Paulus Kirche, was formally organized and a church structure built on land donated by Mr. and Mrs. George Schlather in 1877. The congregation organized affiliate churches in the nearby communities of Marion in 1890 and Zuehl in 1900. A new church building was erected in 1905. Services were held exclusively in the German language until 1923. A third sanctuary was completed in 1959. (1993)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
This congregation grew out of German Lutheran services held in homes and a schoolhouse around 1876 and was formally organized as St. Paulus Kirche in 1877 on donated land. It spun off daughter churches in nearby communities and worshipped entirely in German until 1923.
Why it matters
Its long life as a German-language church marks how immigrant faith communities preserved language and heritage deep into the twentieth century.
Plan your visit
NearbyMake a day of it — museums, food, and places to stay near this marker.
Attractions
- Morgan's Wonderland10.0 mi away · 5223 David Edwards Drive, San Antonio, TX
- Off-Road Adventure Ride10.1 mi away
- Morgan's Inspiration Island10.1 mi away · 5223 David Edwards Drive, San Antonio, TX
- Amazing Air10.9 mi away · 7702 North Interstate Highway 35, San Antonio, TX
- Green Acres Golf and Games13.7 mi away
Places data © OpenStreetMap contributors. Hours and details change — call ahead.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · George Schlather
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Cibolo
Cibolo, TX
Cibolo took root in 1875 when the Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio Railroad pushed a line across western Guadalupe County. A general store opened the next year to serve the largely German settlers, and a post office followed in 1876, giving the town a name drawn from an Indian word for buffalo. For a time it was also called Fromme's Store after Charles Fromme bought the business in 1882; the community finally incorporated in 1965.
Schertz
Schertz, TX
Schertz began in the 1840s when German immigrants from the New Braunfels area spread out in search of good farmland along Cibolo Creek. The community lived by agriculture until the Galveston, Harrisburg, and San Antonio Railroad arrived about 1877, linking it to San Antonio and wider markets. Once known as Cibolo Pit and Cutoff, the town took the name Schertz — for early settler Sebastian Schertz — when its post office opened in 1882.
Marion Public Schools
Marion, TX
Marion took shape in 1877 as a German settlement and shipping point on the Galveston, Harrisburg, and San Antonio Railroad, and free public education followed almost at once when T. W. Peirce gave land and three thousand dollars for schools. The first schoolhouse opened in 1878, a brick building replaced it in 1917, and the Works Progress Administration added a third in 1938. As enrollment climbed, the grades split across separate campuses.
Site of Geier and Schmid Farm
Universal City, TX
German immigrants Wilhelm Geier and his family arrived at Galveston in 1849 from Wolfenbüttel, and after settling in New Braunfels their daughter Johanna married fellow immigrant Martin Schmid. In 1855 the families moved to the community then called Cibolo (later Selma), buying 127 acres they eventually split between them. Martin, a Confederate cavalry veteran, was buried here in 1880, founding a family cemetery; the neighboring Kincaid graves hold a Kentucky-born blacksmith and his kin. Fences and headstones have long since vanished from both burial grounds.