White Deer Sacred Heart Catholic Church
White Deer, Carson County, Texas
Marker Inscription
WHITE DEER SACRED HEART CATHOLIC CHURCH IN 1909, HENRY CZERNER AND BEN URBANCZYK, BOTH ORIGINALLY FROM THE POLISH COLONY OF PANNA MARIA, TEXAS, CAME TO THE PANHANDLE AND SECURED A BLOCK OF LAND NEAR THE TOWN OF WHITE DEER. BY 1913, TWELVE POLISH FAMILIES HAD SETTLED IN WHITE DEER. WITHOUT A CHURCH, SETTLERS OFTEN HELD PRAYER SERVICES IN INDIVIDUAL HOMES. ONCE A MONTH, A VISITING PRIEST WOULD CONDUCT MASS. FUNDS WERE RAISED AND FATHER C.J. BIER PURCHASED LAND FOR A CHURCH IN FEBRUARY 1913. WHILE MEN CONSTRUCTED THE CHURCH WOMEN AND CHILDREN WORKED IN THE FIELDS AND SACRED HEART WAS COMPLETED ON MAY 29, 1913. THE PARISH GREW AND IN 1927 FATHER M. FRENCH BECAME THE FIRST RESIDENT PASTOR. DURING THE OIL BOOM SACRED HEART GREW AND BECAUSE OF A LACK OF CATHOLIC CHURCHES, AREA RESIDENTS ATTENDED MASS IN WHITE DEER. FATHER ZIENTA ESTABLISHED THE POLISH SAUSAGE FESTIVAL IN AUGUST 1939 TO PRESERVE POLISH TRADITION, BUT DURING WORLD WAR II THE FESTIVAL WAS DISCONTINUED. THE CHURCH COMMITTEE PURCHASED A HOSPITAL UNIT FROM PAMPA AIR FORCE BASE ON MAY 5, 1948 THAT BECAME THE PARISH HALL. WHEN A TORNADO HIT WHITE DEER IN JUNE 1951, THE ELEMENTARY AND HIGH SCHOOL WERE BOTH DESTROYED AND SACRED HEART BECAME THE TEMPORARY SCHOOL TO GRADES FIVE THROUGH EIGHT. THE POLISH SAUSAGE FESTIVAL WAS REVIVED IN 1957 AND PROCEEDS WERE USED TO BUILD A NEW CHURCH THAT WAS COMPLETED IN MARCH 1962. THE STATUE BETWEEN THE CHURCH AND RECTORY IS IN HONOR OF ROBERT LANE McCREARY WHO DIED AT SEA ON OCTOBER 27, 1964. CATHOLIC PRIESTS HELPED EARLY POLISH SETTLERS BECOME A PART OF THE COMMUNITY. SACRED HEART HAS CONTINUED SERVING THEIR NEIGHBORS AS A WELCOMING PLACE OF WORSHIP AND HOPE. (2012)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In 1909 Henry Czerner and Ben Urbanczyk, both from the Polish colony of Panna Maria, came north to secure land near White Deer, and by 1913 a dozen Polish families had settled the area. Lacking a church, they prayed in one another's homes until they raised Sacred Heart, completed in May 1913 while women and children worked the fields. The parish weathered oil booms, a 1951 tornado, and the world wars — even reviving its Polish Sausage Festival — before building the present church in 1962.
Why it matters
Sacred Heart shows how immigrant Catholic parishes anchored Polish identity and community life as families spread from South Texas onto the Panhandle plains.
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Related people
- · Henry Czerner
- · Ben Urbanczyk
- · Father C.J. Bier
Related events
- · 1951 White Deer tornado
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Polish Settlers of White Deer
White Deer, TX
In 1854 some 800 Poles crossed the Atlantic in a single small ship and, unable to speak English, walked two hundred miles from Galveston to found Panna Maria, the oldest permanent Polish settlement in America. Half a century later, drawn by land offers from the White Deer Land Company, their descendants migrated to the Panhandle and, joined by Polish families from other states, built their first Catholic church on this site in 1913.
Sacred Heart Catholic Cemetery
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The White Deer Land Company donated five acres for this cemetery in 1913, a quarter mile from the town's historically Polish Sacred Heart parish. Its first burial that January was the infant son of the Czerner family, and its white crosses and crucifix mark generations of the Polish Catholic community, including veterans of World War I, World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. Parishioners still tend the grounds side by side, as their ancestors did.
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When oil transformed the Texas Panhandle, Borger sprang up as a townsite in 1926, and Greek immigrant brothers Gus and John Yiantsou arrived from St. Louis to open a restaurant. In 1927 Gus erected this building — among the first substantial structures in the roaring boomtown — and by 1929 the brothers were running Grand Hardware and Variety Store below a second-floor hotel. Known for their generosity, the Yiantsous gave freely to local and Greek charities.
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