Sto Lat! Sacred Heart celebrates 100 - White Deer, TX - News Article Locations on Waymarking.com

County of event: Carson County
Location of event: 615 N. Main St., Sacred Heart Catholic Church, White Deer

The same event was reported in the Amarillo Globe-News through the Panhandle region

" The Father Leopold Moczygemba Foundation chartered a bus for 38 people to attend the 100th Anniversary of Sacred Heart Catholic Church in White Deer, Texas, in the panhandle. The group was led by Monsignor Franciszek Kurzaj, the pastor at Sacred Heart parish in Floresville, Texas. Included in the bus tour were five members of a team from the University of Wroclaw in Poland. The White Deer community and parish was established in 1913 by Polish families from Bandera and South Texas and other locations who traveled to White Deer to take advantage of job opportunities and land offered by a large ranching company at the beginning of the 1900s. The founding families surnames included Rapstine, Warminski, Mazurek, Kalka, Haiduk, Czerner, Anderwald, Gordzelik, Kotara, Kotzur, Peters, and Urbanczyk. The anniversary celebrations included a visit to the cemetery, a party at the parish hall, a Centennial Mass, and a Polish Sausage Dinner, and a visit to the large Cross and Stations of the Cross at Groom, Texas." ~ The Father Leopold Moczygemba Foundation

Historical Marker on site :
In 1854, 100 Polish families (800 persons) came to America in one small sailing ship -- a voyage of 9 weeks. None spoke English. From Galveston they walked 200 miles to Panna Maria in South Texas, arriving for Christmas Eve Mass. There they toiled at manual labor. In 1909, in response to White Deer Land Co. offers, they migrated here. Later the colony had additions from Washington State, Nebraska, Wisconsin. Their first Catholic Church, completed May 13, 1913, was on this site. Today their descendants include some of the most outstanding citizens of Texas. ~ State Historical Survey Committee, 1966