St. Philips Episcopal Church of Palestine
Palestine, Anderson County, Texas
Marker Inscription
During the 1850s Mrs. Frances Henderson, wife of Governor J. Pinckney Henderson, helped found St. Philips as a mission. Upon the petition of the Rev. John Owens, who served part-time as the priest here, the Diocese of Texas in 1860 raised the mission to full parish status. During the Civil War, members met in homes, the Masonic Lodge, or the Methodist sanctuary. In 1863 the Rev. Caleb Dow became the first full-time rector. James Firth Brook designed this building, erected in 1875-76 on Oak Street. The congregation grew with the town and in 1903 the structure was moved here. (1979)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
St. Philips began in the 1850s as a mission, thanks in part to Frances Henderson, wife of Texas's first elected governor, and rose to full parish status in 1860. Through the Civil War its congregation had no home of its own, gathering in members' houses, the Masonic Lodge, and a borrowed Methodist sanctuary. A permanent church, designed by James Firth Brook, went up in 1875â76 and was later moved to this site as the town grew.
Why it matters
The parish's founding by a governor's wife and its wartime perseverance reflect the central role women and churches played in binding frontier Texas communities together.
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Related people
- ¡ Frances Henderson
- ¡ J. Pinckney Henderson
- ¡ John Owens
- ¡ Caleb Dow
- ¡ James Firth Brook
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Site of Palestine Service Men's Club, World War II
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During World War II the railroad town of Palestine sat more than a hundred miles from any base, yet trainloads of soldiers rolled through daily. In June 1942 local residents â led by Zula Hanks and staffed by scores of women â opened a service club in the O'Neil Hotel offering refreshments, music, dancing, and letter-writing, and carried sandwiches out to troops who could not leave the trains. The group also helped fund a separate Negro Service Club for the African American soldiers who often rode farther down the line.
Site of St. Mary's Academy
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When the railroad reached Palestine, it brought Catholic workers who wanted religious schooling for their children, and in 1882 Mother St. Andrew Felton sent three Sisters of Divine Providence from Castroville to found St. Mary's Academy. Beginning in a three-room frame schoolhouse, the sisters taught basic subjects alongside religion, French, and elocution before the growing school moved to this site and expanded with wings holding classrooms, dormitories, and a chapel. It served day and boarding students until the high school closed in 1949 and the school shut permanently in 1966.
First Methodist Church of Palestine
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Methodism took root in Palestine, Texas, through classes organized in 1840 and gathered strength after the town became the Anderson County seat in 1846, aided by organizer Louisiana Catherine "Aunt Bee" Small. The community's first church, Bascom Chapel, rose in 1850 and served as the town's sole house of worship for years before a congregational split around 1900 produced the First Methodist Church, which built here in 1910. Women's missionary work has been part of the church's life since its earliest decades.
Osjetea Briggs
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Born in 1917 near Groesbeck, Osjetea Briggs became a Native American photographer, journalist and author who documented downtown Palestine and its people from the studio she opened there in the 1950s. She founded and edited her own weekly, the Elkhart Eagle, whose column "Walk in My Moccasins" won recognition â and later a 1992 book of the same name â and she advised the Anderson County Council of Honor for four decades. Active in Democratic politics, she served her East Texas community until her death in 2002.