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 St. Joseph's Catholic Church
N 29° 06.775 W 098° 28.778
14R E 550628 N 3220607
The physical church building is gone but the St. Joseph's Catholic Church still has an effect on the people and culture of this local community. The marker is located on N. Las Gallinas Rd. at FM 536.
Waymark Code: WM14YGX
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 09/12/2021
Views: 5
The Polish community that settled into this are of what is now Atascosa County in Texas began around 1850 with a group of Polish families who settled this area and eventually built a church building in the 1880s. When the itinerate priest came by he conducted Mass, but otherwise the families worshiped together as best they could. By the turn of the century, the community was doing good with a convent and a school; but, by the 1920s the town population was declining and both closed. The old church building burned in 1983 but the community and its heritage continues on even today.
Marker Number: 20093
Marker Text:
Settlement along Gallinas Creek began in the early 1850s, before the creation of Atascosa County in 1856. In succeeding years, a group of families, several originating from Upper Silesia, Poland, settled in the area. These included the Kasper Kalka, Frank Kinas, Joseph Kindla Sr., John Korus, Charles Salzman, Sophie Skwortz, Stanislaus Slomchinski, Christian Eichman, Victor Hug, Wilfred Toudouze, Benjamin Arnold, Thomas Haiduk, Vicente Huizar and Alcario Gonzales families. Most families in this settlement called Gallinas (also known as Las Gallinas) were Catholic and in 1876 eight families established a new parish, St. Joseph’s Catholic Church. It was one of the early predominantly Polish Catholic churches in the state. Father Chapalar came on horseback to say Mass in the home of Kasper Kalka, and on holy days when no priest was present families gathered in the Kalka home to recite together the “Mysteries of the Holy Rosary and the Litany of the Saints.”In 1880, Kasper and Maria Kalka, John and Marianna Korus, and Charles and Anna (Annie) Salzman donated land “for the purpose of obtaining forever a place of public worship.” Kasper Kalka also donated land for a church cemetery. A post office in Gallinas operated from 1880 to 1912. Construction on a new church building began in 1881 and was completed in 1896 to include a forty-foot bell tower. Father Rupprecht became the first resident pastor in 1900. Benedictine sisters established a convent and school at Gallinas in 1919. Growth in the settlement and the church was affected by families moving to other communities, leading to the closing of the convent and school in the 1920s and the church in 1981. The church building was destroyed by fire in 1983, but the impact and influence of St. Joseph’s can still be measured generations after its founding.
(2018)
Marker is property of the State of Texas
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Visit Instructions:
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