Trinity Protestant Episcopal Church
Galveston, Galveston County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Erected 1855-1857 for third episcopal mission in Republic of Texas. Established Feb. 6, 1841, by the Rev. Benjamin Eaton, rector from 1841 to 1871, who is buried beneath the sanctuary. First service held Nov. 1, 1857. Here Rev. Alexander Gregg was elected first bishop of the diocese of Texas on May 6, 1859. Trinity and her congregation have withstood the perils of epidemics, fire and flood. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark, 1965
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Founded in 1841 by the Rev. Benjamin Eaton as the third Episcopal mission in the Republic of Texas, Trinity built this Galveston sanctuary between 1855 and 1857. Eaton served as rector for thirty years and lies buried beneath the sanctuary, and it was here in 1859 that Alexander Gregg was elected the first Episcopal bishop of Texas. The church and its congregation endured Galveston's repeated ordeals of epidemic, fire, and flood.
Why it matters
It represents the establishment of organized religious life in the young Republic of Texas and the resilience of a congregation on the hurricane-battered Gulf Coast.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Benjamin Eaton
- · Alexander Gregg
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
George Campbell Childress
Galveston, TX
Born to a prominent Nashville family, George Campbell Childress trained as a lawyer and editor before following his uncle, the empresario Sterling Robertson, to Texas. Elected a delegate to the Convention of 1836, he is regarded as the primary author of the Texas Declaration of Independence, adopted on March 2, 1836. His later efforts to win recognition and build a law practice failed, and, despondent, he took his own life in Galveston in 1841; Childress County was named in his honor.
Early History of Galveston County
Galveston, TX
Long a crossroads for Native peoples, privateers, and Spanish and French explorers, Galveston Island briefly became the seat of the Republic of Texas in 1836. As Santa Anna's army pushed east, President David G. Burnet's improvised cabinet fled Washington-on-the-Brazos and sheltered here until the Texan victory at San Jacinto. From this port the fledgling Texas Navy, later reorganized under President Lamar and Commodore Edwin W. Moore, guarded the coast against Mexican invasion until U.S. annexation in 1846.
Texas Revolution and Civil War, Galveston County
Galveston, TX
After the pirate Lafitte was driven from Galveston, West Indian settlers arrived and the island grew into the chief port of a rising Texas, declared a port of entry by Mexico in 1825. It briefly served as capital of the Republic when President Burnet's cabinet fled the interior during the 1836 San Jacinto campaign, and Michel B. Menard soon bought the townsite for $50,000. During the Civil War, Confederate forces evacuated the city in 1862 but retook it in 1863 under General John Bankhead Magruder, capturing Union ships and troops and holding it to the war's end.
Original Oleander Planting in Galveston
Galveston, TX
In 1841, during the days of the Republic of Texas, businessman Joseph Osterman brought oleanders from Jamaica to Galveston, where his sister, Mrs. Isidore Dyer, planted them in her yard on this spot. The surviving plant here is an outgrowth of that original Dyer planting, transplanted in 1939 when a new structure went up. From such beginnings the hardy, salt-tolerant oleander spread across the island.