St. Stephen's Episcopal Church
Liberty, Liberty County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Served as early as the 1850s by visiting clergy, local Episcopalians worshiped in temporary quarters before erecting this structure in 1898. the oldest church building in Liberty, it stands on property donated by George W. Davis and Judge William F. Hardin. This parish was known by several names before it became St. Stephen's in 1952. Stained glass windows were installed in the frame church in the 1960s.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Episcopalians in Liberty were worshiping under visiting clergy as early as the 1850s, but not until 1898 did they raise a building of their own — on land given by two prominent citizens, George W. Davis and Judge William F. Hardin. It remains the oldest church building in town. The parish carried several names over the decades before settling on St. Stephen's in 1952, and added its stained glass in the 1960s.
Why it matters
As Liberty's oldest surviving church, the frame sanctuary is a rare physical link to the religious and civic life of a 19th-century East Texas town.
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Related people
- · George W. Davis
- · William F. Hardin
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Gillard - Duncan House
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Augustine B. Hardin
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Augustine B. Hardin, born in Georgia in 1798, was among the fifty-nine men who signed the Texas Declaration of Independence in 1836. That document, adopted at Washington-on-the-Brazos as Santa Anna's army advanced, formally severed Texas from Mexico. Hardin lent his name to the cause and lived out his years in the Liberty County that his generation helped found.
Benjamin W. Hardin
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Benjamin Watson Hardin, born in Georgia in 1796, served in the Ninth Congress of the Republic of Texas and as sheriff of Liberty County. His public life placed him among the men who staffed the young Republic's fragile government and enforced its laws on the frontier. He died in Liberty County in 1850, having helped guide it through the transition into statehood.
William Hardin
Liberty, TX
William Hardin, born in Georgia in 1801, became a leading figure in the Anglo settlement that grew into Liberty, Texas. He served as alcalde and first judge of the Liberty municipality and was a delegate to the Convention of 1833, one of the gatherings that pressed Mexican Texas toward autonomy and, ultimately, revolution. He died in Galveston in 1839, in the early years of the Republic he helped shape.