St. James Anniversary Book

Oh, the beauty you’ll find…

Oh, the beauty you’ll find…

THE JOURNEY OF ST. JAMES’ EPISCOPAL CHURCH

Edited by James W. Austin on behalf of The Rev. Eric P. Hungerford

Art direction by Suzanne Morriss-Batchelder

FOREWORD THE STORY OF ST. JAMES’

e Christian People are the keepers of a Story. e rst Christians were commanded to go forth and share the Good News: Jesus told Mary at the empty tomb to go and tell the others what had taken place. ose rst disciples traveled far and wide and told the Story of the Gospel and that story changed the course of the Story of Humanity.

I am a great lover of history and I believe that each generation is called upon to ask how it ts into the Great Human story. In the last 50 years or so, the eld of history has begun to ask the question, “What was life like for ordinary people?”—not just, “What was life like for those who were powerful or in uential?” is scholarly question dovetails nicely with the Christian religion, a religion founded and passed down from generation to generation by ordinary people: shermen, seamstresses, carpenters, and merchants.

In the Eucharistic Prayer that we pray on a saints’ day we say,

It is right, and a good and joyful thing, always and everywhere to give thanks to you, Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth. For the wonderful grace and virtue declared in all your saints, who have been the chosen vessels of your grace, and the lights of the world in their generations.

As the gathered Body of Christ in a particular time and place, it is always our Christian Vocation to discern the way in which we are called to be “lights of the world” in our own generation.

What we have tried to do here is to tell the story of St. James’. It is a people’s history about the ordinary folk who have gathered to enact God’s Vision, through the Episcopal faith, here in La Grange for roughly the last 170 years. It is a story that has been compiled and told by present-day members of St. James’ under the indefatigable direction of Jim Austin, all of whom have worked tirelessly, scouring church archives and conducting interviews with vital protagonists in the story, looking back over our history and looking forward to our future.

As I re ect on my seven years as rector of St. James’ and the way that it ts into the story of St. James’, the word that I keep coming back to is perseverance. is is a word that encapsulates not only the last seven years as we have overcome the passing of many faithful members, a hurricane, major building projects and expansions, and a global pandemic; it also encapsulates the last 170 years, the challenges of Reconstruction, the Yellow Fever Epidemic, the Great Depression, changing trends and demographics of South-Central Texas, and a long period of declining membership and nancial challenges. Over these many years, many generations have planted seeds some of which are just now beginning to germinate. is is an exciting time to be a member of St. James’—a vibrant, vital, and steadily growing congregation made up of people from all walks of life who welcome those who come through our doors with open arms and who serve the surrounding community in God’s name with cheerfulness and love.

In the words of St. Paul in his epistle to the Philippians, “I am con dent of this, that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ.”

- e Rev. Eric P. Hungerford,

Rector

e Rev. W. G. W. Smith and wife Jane

“In a world of noise, confusion, and con ict it is necessary that there be places of silence, inner discipline, and peace. In such places love can blossom.” – omas Merton (1915–68), a Trappist monk and writer on spiritual matters

Some human works transcend the realm of the pedestrian and approach angelic heights. Paintings come to mind. e Mona Lisa, Las Meninas, Guernica are no mere objects, blobs of paint on canvas. ey are mythic. If the works of Warhol, Wood, the Wyeths, and Whistler are genius, then this trio and their ilk are saintly.

Many other great fabrications—one thinks of jewels of architecture here—attain lo y heights of anthropomorphic status. Gaudi’s La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, the Sydney Opera House, the Parthenon on the Athenian Acropolis, all occupy a place in the human narrative that soars above the prosaic. ey are like personages to us, characters in a play. Yes, Manhattan’s Woolworth building is exceptional; but it’s not in a league with its neighbor, the Flatiron Building or the 103-story, Art Deco Empire State Building. One might say, of some contemporary architecture, the buildings are “impressive,” or “lovely,” or “dramatic,” or “notable.” But these are not the adjectives one employs upon encountering the Taj Mahal in all its gleaming symmetry. Only the vocabulary of awe seems to t the mystical mausoleum that Emperor Shah Jahan built in Agra. “Brilliant,” “majestic,” “spiritual”: ese are attributes of the most venerated among us.

It is not just on a grand scale that this architectural humanization occurs. At the junction of Monroe Street and Colorado Street in La Grange, Texas there stands a yellow-on-red historic structure known as St. James’ Episcopal Church. e church is an iconic symbol of Fayette County. e locals revere it; passersby crane their necks holding it in sight for extra seconds.

O en, when locals speak of the little church, they talk of the historical context of the building’s development. is was her status during the Civil War; that was her pro le when the Yellow Fever Epidemic lay on the land; during WWI such and such was going on with St. James’. is telling of the St. James’ story is evocative of the way a biographer relates the life of his or her protagonist. e writer’s text speaks of its subject in terms of his or her changing environs, in the context of his or her evolution.

In 1976, the St. James’ rector, the Rev. Frank E. Fuller, III wrote and edited a short history of the church. Entitled Passion of St. James’, it tells us precisely the names of rectors long forgotten and their dates of tenure, among other things. One supposes it is helpful to learn that in 1848, “Henry N. Pierce was appointed missionary … at La Grange ….” But doesn’t it seem much more meaningful to know that this was the very year that saw the end of the Mexican-American War (1846-48), the year of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo via which Mexico relinquished its ownership claim of Texas beyond the Rio Grande?

e point of departure for this book is not to replicate Rev. Fuller’s work, for he did a ne and noble job. Rather, the idea is to place the results of the Rev. Fuller’s work in a historical context, as if the little church were a personage whose coming-of-age story needs to be eshed out.

Events exist in an intricate web of references. It is one thing for the reader of Fuller’s piece to learn that the rst seeds of the beloved St. James’ were sewn when the Episcopal missionary at Matagorda, the Rev. C.S. Ives passed through the town in 1840 and speculated that the location might just be a potential mission site. It’s quite another to understand that Texas was its own republic at the time with legations in Paris, London, and Washington, DC. e Diocese of Texas was the rst foreign Missionary Diocese of the Episcopal Church. It would be ve more years before Texas became the 28th state of the United States, and 21 more years till secessionists red the rst shots of the Civil War at Fort Sumter in South Carolina.

is modest work is not an arid recounting of the cast of characters who passed through the leadership ranks of a church; nor is it about the physicality of a building. Rather it aspires to be a life-story—a biography of an edi ce as a character with élan vital, a saintly, soulful character who seems to invite all who pass by to: Enter as strangers, leave as friends.

-Jim Austin

Bishop Kai Ryan Enters St. James’

“A humorous recollection comes from the time Bishop Quin paid a visit to the meagerly funded church. He richly observed that, ‘St. James’ is one of the few parishes where I am honored to pay for my own lunch!’” – e Rev. David Puckett

St. James’ History: Rekindling the Fire

“Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full e ect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”

-James 1:2-4

What drives a group of people to form a church, to stake out a sacred space for themselves to practice their faith and encounter their God? And when the rst spark of that religious fervor cools, what brings the ame back to life?

O en, that re is dependent upon one individual. All successful organizations have someone at the reins who is enthusiastic, intelligent, charismatic, and devoted to the cause. Take away that force, and the organization o en collapses. Such was the case with St. James’. e Rev. William George Washington Smith led the church from 1881 until 1891. Under his governance, the current Queen Anne Revival building was constructed in 1885. e Rev. Smith himself built the altar rail, the bishop’s chair, and the lectern. e members built the pews, which are still in use. By all accounts, Rev. Smith was energetic and a visionary, leaving the church only when his health demanded it. And the decline of the church began with his departure. Historical records show the church mostly vacant from 1901 to 25, with Bishop Quin holding services once a year. A succession of non-resident rectors attempted to keep the church going for the small group of Episcopalians who made La Grange their home. In 1917, Deacon J. Cross Gray tried to lead the congregation but noted that “the tower had been the home of bats and birds for 20 years, and the roof broken in at many places. e carpet, the sanctuary, and the chancel were so dirty that their designs were unrecognizable. e organ was in such shape that it would play when it ought not and would not play when it ought.” (Houston Daily Post

1918) At the turn of the 20th century, rural Texas was losing its youth to the growing cities of Houston, Dallas, and San Antonio. Houston went from 44,633 residents in 1900 to 138,276 in 1920. Dallas grew in that same period from 82,726 to 200,000. La Grange was not to grow in this manner. e population in 1900 was 2,392; it declined to 1,669 in 1920. Even the rector of St. James’, Deacon Gray, became discouraged and le the Episcopal Church to become a Presbyterian minister. In 1921, with only nine members and no full-time rector, St. James’ lost its status as a parish and was demoted to mission status, e ectively making it a ward of the diocese. It remained a mission church for the next 55 years.

In the early 1930s, the Rev. Clarence Lake of Bastrop held services, and the St. James’ Women’s Guild served as the vestry. e church was held together by a small group of devoted people determined to maintain the only Episcopal Church presence in Fayette County. ey took seriously what later would become the church motto of “Enter as strangers, leave as friends.”

A er WWII, when a building boom began in the United States and the population rose, there were enough parishioners to support a resident clergy.

e Rev. Arthur Edmonds claims that distinction. British-born, he moved to La Grange to take over the church in 1951. Sadly, he lived only six months, but the renewal of the church had begun.

e Rev. Arthur Lockhart served from 1952 to 56, and the rst parish hall was constructed, along with the sacristy and the o ce. Appropriately, the new parish hall was dedicated to the Rev. Smith, the visionary pastor who oversaw the building of the church in 1885. Church records show only 12 active members in 1958, but by 1963 that number had doubled. ree church women started a thri store, the precursor of what is now Second Chance Emporium. e store front was on the main town square. is community outreach has been a strong part of St. James’ for 60 years. e women’s group also purchased a new organ.

“I was a ‘cradle Episcopalian’ who came to La Grange to teach a er graduating from college. About ve to 10 people attended the 10:00 am Sunday service, the only weekly service. ere was no wall hanging behind the altar, and the altar was installed against the wall, so the priest o en had his back to the communicants. e baptismal font was at the rear of the church.”

- Mary Kahanek

“ ere was a time when Bishop Quin was going to close the church because of lack of support. We invited him to visit St. James’. ose meeting with the bishop begged him not to close the church, and he told them you can’t have a church if the people don’t take care of it. A thri shop proved to be the answer, and a few women got it started right away. At that time, the thri shop was very important to the church; its revenues supported the operations of St. James’.”

- Bishop Dena Harrison

In 1978, St. James’ had 149 communicants, enough to apply for a reinstatement of parish status. e Rev. Frank Fuller, who became rector in 1975, spearheaded this initiative. As he wrote in his letter of application to the diocese, “A mission is a congregation supported primarily by diocesan funds; it may be just starting out, or it may be declining.” St. James’ was neither a edgling church nor a dying one. It was time to acknowledge this. In 1978 St. James’ regained its parish status: It could now raise its own funds, make its own decisions on sta ng, and call its own clergy.

Under the Rev. Fuller, a new and ambitious restoration and building program was completed. Storm damage from 1977 had made repairs necessary, and in addition to repairing the belfry and restoring the stained-glass windows, an o ce, a new kitchen, and the Meditation Garden were added, thanks to grants from the Moody Foundation and the Texas Historical Association. A nal feather in the church’s cap was the adding of the church to the National Historic Register. St. James’s place in the history of La Grange and Texas had been recognized a second time, having been previously done so by being designated a Texas Historical Landmark in 1965.

“Later, a red velvet wall hanging was installed behind the altar. When the Rev. Frank Fuller was preaching one Sunday, a bat came from behind the curtain, crawled around, and hung on the fabric. Everyone watched the bat as he delivered the sermon, and no doubt nearly all missed the point of the lesson. Well, down came the red velvet! An intermediate hanging was installed for a few years until the current (2021) one was adopted.” -

Mary Kahanek

“

ere would be eight to 10 people attending the 8:00 am service. I think we appreciated the friendliness we encountered there. Since I live so close to the church, it has always been easy for me to walk across the street for the 8:00 am service, and although that service has no music, I love its formality. e Rev. David Puckett, the rector at the time I joined, kept everyone ‘in line’; the services were Anglican and decidedly by-the-book.”

- Pinky Wilson

e Rev. Frank Fuller

“About 2001, the same year we moved to Fayette County full-time, the Men’s Club started growing. At the rst Club meeting I attended there were eight of us, and they said that was the biggest group they had ever had attend. We began taking shing trips to Lake Buchanan, Port O’Connor, and Arkansas.

ese trips were well attended and a lot of fun. We confess that about the only prayer we said on those outings was the one before dinner.”

- Joe Bailey

“Around 2008, the parish bought the adjoining property, an old, abandoned lumberyard, for $175,000. We were able to get a loan from the Quin Foundation to make this purchase for possible future expansion. is gave St James’ a footprint on Travis Street (Hwy 71 Business) and gave us much more visibility to the public. e parish could not a ord to tear down the old lumberyard structures, so we allowed Cowboy Norsworthy of La Grange to demolish the buildings in return for keeping the lumber.”

- Joe Bailey

One of the most active and public groups of St. James’ is its Men’s Club. Longtime parishioner Bob Hays remembers the Club in 1994 when he and his wife Helen began going to the church. ere would be ve or six men in attendance, meeting in people’s homes. ey tried cooking anksgiving turkeys, with some success, and attempted Saturday full-meal cooks, but the amount of work involved put an end to those. e rector, the Rev. Anne Hoey, encouraged the men to buy or build a large cooker, even supplying a tiny Hibachi as an enticement. Finally, Pinky Wilson—who lives in the Kaulbach-Wilson house just across from the church and designed by the same architect as the church—ended up providing the money to buy the rst real barbecue pit. “Pinky’s Pit” is now a feature in the community, with hundreds of chickens and sausages being cooked each month on the three pits, and the proceeds of the sale of these products go to various charitable organizations in La Grange. ere are many who believe the Men’s Club was the driving force in the growth of the parish, and the driving force in rejuvenating the Men’s Club was the monthly cooks. An additional piece of property was added when, in 2008, St. James’ bought the lumberyard next to the church. e space now serves as a parking lot, preschool playground, and Men’s Club barbecue pit area. Also, at this time, St. James’ started the preschool as a Mothers’ Day Out (becoming a preschool in 2003) and bought the rectory. Finances were tight, however, and the parishioners initiated various fundraising e orts: garage sales, silent auctions, and supplying overnight accommodations to MS 150 riders (a 150-mile charity bike ride), with proceeds going to fund the church operations.

“Long-time parishioners Bob and Helen Hays are good friends of mine. One day Bob complained to me—for the umpteenth time—that the Men’s Club needed a barbecue pit. So, I nally said, ‘OK, go buy the damn thing and I will pay for it.’ Bob’s jaw dropped, ‘Are you sure, Pinky?’ So that is how Pinky’s Pit came to be. It was certainly not because I could barbecue, I can tell you that!” - Pinky Wilson

“Each month our membership selects a Fayette County charity to receive the proceeds of the sale, and representatives from the selected charity help sell. When the COVID pandemic shut down the cooks in 2020, the Men’s Club had been scheduled to devote the May cook’s $500 to the struggling, similarly named St. James AME Church in Weimar. eir structure was in great need of repair. Realizing their plight, several of our members, generous to the core, spontaneously decided to make personal donations to help them out. ey did not raise the $500, however; they raised $2,100.” - Joe

Bailey

“ e Men’s Club started cooking barbecue about 2005, for a fundraiser. We began serving chicken, potatoes, green beans, and peach cobbler, and quickly decided that was too much work. So, we switched to barbecue chicken and sausage only. At rst, we borrowed pits from another church; then Pinky Wilson contributed funds to help us buy a small barbecue pit, appropriately named Pinky’s Pit.” - Joe

Bailey

In 2005, the church celebrated its 150th anniversary as a congregation. Prior to that event, the church was refurbished, with the pews being removed for storage, the interior cleaned and repainted, and the wood oors re nished. Services were held in the parish hall, at “Camp St. James’,” as the parishioners called the temporary location. e celebration itself was a two-day festival, complete with bagpipes, and showcasing the newly needlepointed kneelers for the communion rail.

e early church membership was local–full-time residents of La Grange and nearby communities. In 2021, the congregational makeup would look vastly di erent. Many of the parishioners are not originally from La Grange, but transplants from Austin and Houston. ey began their tenure at St. James’, coming to La Grange only on weekends. ese “weekenders” frequently retired to their country places and are now permanent residents of the area. And the church’s once-obscure clergy, o en living in other cities, have gained some notoriety themselves, with their auspicious beginnings at St. James’: e Rt. Rev. Dena Harrison, who served St. James’ from 1992 to 97, became the rst woman bishop elected and consecrated in Texas.

e Rev. David Puckett (1980 to 85) went on to serve as dean of St. John’s Cathedral, Albuquerque. e church also has bene ted from becoming a diocesan model for an older, small parish bringing in a young rector who revitalizes the community. Some of the recent clergy have joined St. James’ serving as rsttime rectors; their youth and energy have been a boost to the parishioners and the town alike.

Hurricane Harvey damaged the church in 2017. Water damage necessitated rebuilding the belfry. But this did not slow down church growth, a growth that created a strong interest in expansion. With its most recent (2020) building and restoration program, the church has enlarged its o ces, preschool, and parish hall. It has added space for choir robes and a music library to serve its

“ e night of the day I buried my dear husband, the ghost visited me. He stood unmenacingly in the doorway of our bedroom. He was a clear apparition to me, as he said sweetly, ‘Don’t worry, you’re gonna be okay.’ Maybe it was my grief and exhaustion speaking to me. But I will say this, my emotions were so numbing that night I wasn’t fazed in the least. Just a run-of-themill ghost with a comforting message, one I needed to hear.” - Pinky

Wilson

Bishop Dena Harrison

John and Pinky Wilson on Bikes

26-member choir. e church is being shepherded by a brilliant young rector, the Rev. Eric Hungerford, who is full of energy and enthusiasm. And with its current parishioner count of nearly 200, a thriving preschool with a waiting list, and an active outreach program, St. James’ Episcopal Church is poised to enter the next chapter of her life with vigor and purpose, being faithful to her calling to “Serve the Lord with gladness.”

e 2020 COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic emptied the church building, as the church was emptied 100 years before during an earlier pandemic. e di erence in these two scenarios is that this modern crisis emptied only the pews. e parishioners were still there, praying together “virtually”—connecting via the internet—and serving the community and one another as they have always done; they are committed to growing this sacred space for many decades to come.

Soli Deo gloria

-Barbara Cauble

“I live in what some call the Kaulbach House, just catty-cornered from the church. I can see my pit from my porch. My house was designed and built by the same folks who created the church. Norma Norton, who lived in the house before me, told me to beware of the ghost who also lives here. He is the spirit of one of the spinster’s Mary Kaulbach’s unsuccessful suitors, a jealous one at that. Case in point: When I had male guests supply priests staying the night in my guest room, say the ghost would become most agitated and would scare the pants o the male visitor. One vowed never to stay in ‘that room’ again. Female guests never seemed to have that problem.”

- Pinky Wilson

e founders of St. James’ Church were no doubt cut from the same cloth as Stephen F. Austin’s Old ree Hundred, and their progenitors made up the pool from which the La Grange Episcopalians emerged. e early parishioners and their relatives were at San Jacinto; they were killed with Nicholas Dawson or marched 800 miles to the dungeons of the Perote Prison in the state of Veracruz with the survivors of the Dawson and Meir Expeditions; they were leaders of troupes in the Texas Revolution and, later, in the secessionist movement and in the Confederate Army in the Civil War.

Burnam, Robison, Lindsay, Shropshire, Manton, Faison, Gregg: ese are the family names of those at the vanguard of the creation of St. James’ Church of La Grange. ese very surnames can be found alongside Austin, Fannin, Houston, Burleson, and Lamar, the latter being the architects of Fayette and neighboring counties, and the birth of the Republic of Texas and the State of Texas.

By reviewing their roles in the taming of the frontier of central Texas, we may see those St. James’ early community leaders reveal to us a deeper understanding of the origin and spirit of the little church at the intersection of Colorado and Monroe streets, a church held together as some say by love and compassion.

Indian Lookout at Monument Hill

Georgiana Shropshire with Child

JESSE AND TEMPERANCE BURNAM’S STORY

Burnam’s Crossing and Sam Houston

One of the earliest characters in the background of the St. James’ story was Jesse Burnam along with his family: wife, Temperance, an orphan when he met her, and their four children. (He would later marry a second time, fathering a total of 16 children.) e Burnams were also two of the rst settlers in Fayette County. He and Temperance were part of Stephen F. Austin’s Old ree Hundred, the 297 families Austin brought to settle what was then the territory of the indigenous people of Mexico.

Born in Madison County, Kentucky nine years before the death of George Washington, Jesse grew up poor, a condition that may have forged his sword-like resoluteness, a necessary condition for survival in the lawless region in the 1820s. He enlisted in the War of 1812 but was cashiered and sent home because of his poor health. Following a doctor’s advice to locate to a warmer climate, he le for the northern Mexican territory that is now Fayette County in Texas. He and Temperance built a blockhouse, forti ed from threats from indigenous people, on the east side of the Colorado River where it is crossed by La Bahía Road. Facing starvation, he became a crack shot, one time bartering for enough gun powder for 12 rounds— with which, he boasted, he took eleven deer. ese animals provided not only their food but also that by which the couple could barter for essentials for living. Temperance, a seamstress who packed her spinning wheel and weaving apparatus on pack horses on their trek to Texas, turned the deer hides into clothing.

Moore’s Fort at Round Top

Pecan Creek near Burnam Family Home

“And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.”

He built a ferry landing around 1835, Burnam’s Crossing, and a mercantile complex to cater to the needs of travelers on La Bahía Road. It would be five more years when the Rev. Caleb Ives, the first official missionary of the Episcopal Church in the Republic of Texas, would pass through La Grange on his way to Austin and mention this little town would make a potential missionary site; this would be the seed of St. James’ Episcopal Church, La Grange. On March 17, 1836, Burnam’s Crossing the ferry, the outbuildings, the lot were burned down. But they weren’t torched by the usual suspects. The complex was reduced to ashes by Gen. Sam Houston, a man for whom Jesse Burnam had no kind words.

The Mexican general Santa Anna had just won the Battle of the Alamo and was marching eastward toward San Jacinto. Houston was retreating from the advancing Mexican army. He and his 600 soldiers crossed the Colorado at Burnam’s Crossing. On his orders, his men set the ferry and all the structures ablaze. His rationale was to slow down Santa Anna. One can imagine the strategy worked. Gen. Houston had bought time to plan a surprise attack on Santa Anna at San Jacinto, not far from Houston. In an 18-minute battle, the Mexican army of around 1,200 men was defeated by Houston’s now, by one count, 910 men—with, it is said, the commanderin-chief’s shouting, “Remember the Alamo! Remember Goliad!” The war establishing the Republic of Texas was now over, though the fighting with Mexico was not.

- Galatians 6:9

Gen. Sam Houston

Burnam and St. James’ Church

Jesse Burnam would come to take part in the building of the infrastructure of ayette County. He was, for example, one of the jurors on the first district court of ayette established on October 22, 1838. Much later, his daughter, Sarah, took dictation from Burnam about his dramatic and parlous life during the settlers’ years of strife with Mexico, his many skirmishes with indigenous peoples, Texas independence and in 18 5 when Texas became the 28th state of the nited States of America. erhaps the most fantastical story is the one about a Mr. arker who resided opposite Burnam on the west side of the Colorado. It seems Mr. arker needed someone to amputate his ailing leg. Burnam didn’t mention which one or why. So Burnam, always eager to come to the aid of a fellow settler, gathered his cohorts, illiams, Bostic, and uykendall and they proceeded to perform the gruesome task. arker seemed to be recovering when a er a few days he complained that the other leg was hurting. Burnam ends his dictation abruptly with, “ and on the 11th day he died.”

Jesse Burnam lived long, leaving ayette County for Burnet, Texas, 5 miles northwest of Austin in 1879. He was, no doubt present at the extravagant 1877 Easter te at St. James’ designed by Julia Lee Sinks, a distinguished parishioner. This glorious decorative tableau, t e ayette ounty ew ra gushed, “was calculated to inspire the admiring spectator with visions of paradise or dreams of Oriental beauty.” A publisher of the ew ra was J. J. Gossler, another member of the St. James’ family. Eighteen seventy-seven was the year Judge Livingston Lindsay served as lay reader, taking over for the ailing the Rev. .G. . Smith. The Rev. Smith would return in 1881, be appointed rector, and St. James’ would thereby attain parish status. Rev. Smith would oversee the building of the beautiful church at the corner of Colorado and Monroe in 1885 and leave under somewhat mysterious circumstances in 1891, eight years a er Jesse Burnam’s death in Burnet.

esse u nam

*Empresario is the Spanish word for entrepreneur and refers to an agent given land in Spanish/Mexican territory in compensation for recruiting settlers to populate the territory.

THE ROBISON FAMILY

Introduction

When Moses Austin died suddenly in June 1821 the Spanish and Mexican authorities transferred his empresario* contract, awarded to him only three months before, to his son, Stephen F. Austin. It was now the latter’s job to recruit the Old ree Hundred, the rugged, adventurous families, mainly from the southern United States, to populate the fertile region between the Gulf of Mexico and the Colorado River.

One can imagine the character strengths Austin sought in his intrepid adventurers and the others migrating to the wild west with them in the early 19th century, those pioneers willing to provide their own law and order in a wild land that had neither. eir grit and determination, as well as their courage to ght alongside their fellow settlers, must have been tangible.

Decades later their descendants would need very di erent skills and strengths. When the ghting was over, it would take shrewdness to plan, to organize, to govern, to implement a rule of law in order to succeed. Nothing captures—or mirrors—this evolution better than the arc of the Robison family of St. James’.

Stephen F. Austin

La Grange Oil Painting on Tin

eal Robison was a dedicated leader in the St. James’ family. He served as Junior arden 1887 to 89 in a decade in which other local key leaders in the church held that office: G. . Sinks, before and eter aison and Julius Meyenberg, a er. The Robison saga starts with eal’s grandfather, John G. The elder Robison came with his son Joel eal’s father to ayette County from Georgia via ew Orleans. He brought with him his slaves as indentured servants and was awarded a league on the west side of Cummins Creek. In 1832 he and his son Joel played pronounced roles in the Battle of elasco, the first skirmish of what was to become the Texas Revolution. The Robisons and their fellow ayette County citizen, Cpt. .J. Russell, were in the militia’s vanguard that decisively defeated the Mexican forces led by Col. omingo de gartechea, commander of the Mexican fort at elasco, and his 100 or so soldados. This crucial victory by the volunteer Texian Militia, as they were called, inspired the colonists.

John G.’s grandson, eal was elevated to the St. James’ vestry in 1885, a crucial year in the church’s history: the year of the construction of the church building. One assumes eal’s father, Joel, visited the little Episcopal Church since his son was so prominent there. Joel Robison was very much alive at the time— he died in 1889—and living close by, in arrenton. One cannot say the same of the grandfather. John G. had become a prominent leader in the Republic of Texas, elected to the irst Congress in 1836. But in ovember of that year, he and his younger brother alter were killed in a skirmish with a band of Comanche warriors on the outskirts of arrenton. It was his son, Joel eal’s father , who made the gruesome discovery of the mutilated bodies, revealed to him by a kettle of circling vultures.

he ather and en. Santa nna

oe a te o son

oe . o son Homestea

Earlier that year, Gen. Sam Houston’s troops, including Joel Robison and 50 other Fayette County militiamen (along with future St. James’ members Lancelot Abbotts, John and William Burnam, and J.H. Kuykendall) crushed Gen. Santa Anna and his army in an 18-minute battle at the San Jacinto River, ending the Texas war of independence.

Joel Robison would later tell the tale of how he, a private in Capt. W.E.J. Heard’s company on April 22, 1836—the day a er the decisive battle— showed compassion on an enlisted Mexican soldier struggling to walk on a forced march into captivity a er the Texas Militia victory. Robison hoisted the piteous soldier onto the croup of his horse and bore him all the way. Upon entering the garrison, the Mexican troops eyed the wretched but disguised prisoner and immediately shouted adulations towards Private Robison’s passenger, General Antonio López de Santa Anna.

Parade at Downtown La Grange

Abbo ’s Homestead

Gravestone of Joel Walter Robison

The Grandson and the New Church

Born in 1848, three years a er Texas statehood, Neal Robison was too young to ght in either the War for Texas Independence or the Civil War. Perhaps he didn’t really need the militaristic aptitudes so essential to his father and grandfather. He graduated from the Bastrop Military School in the nal year of the War Between the States. At the young age of 21, he received his law degree in International and Constitutional Law from the University of Virginia. He returned to Texas, established residence at Warrenton, and in 1879 moved to La Grange where at 31 he met and married Hallie P. Carter. He must have made a favorable impression on the citizens of Fayette County, who elected him Tax Collector less than three years a er his arrival.

At 34, the Rev. W.G.W. Smith, the new o cial rector of the now parish—no longer mission—of St. James’ congregation, pledged to build a church. is was three years before Mrs. G.W. Shropshire donated the property at Travis at Monroe streets, in 1884. ( e property was later swapped for the adjacent lot at the present site at Colorado and Monroe streets.) e Rev. Smith must have seen something special in the 37-year-old, well-liked and trusted Neal Robison; he made sure Neal was on the vestry that would oversee the construction in the year the building of the church began; this was one year before Bishop Gregg presided over the laying of the church’s cornerstone, 1886.

Neal Robison

Bastrop Academy

Robison was Junior Warden in 1887 when lighting struck the church tower and in 1889 when Bishop Gregg huddled for three days with the vestry trying to resolve a con ict in the congregation.

is “con ict,” though unspeci ed, would lead to 16 members’ resigning. Apparently, they were an “unruly” group who wanted things “to run their way,” which was “upon worldly principles,” according to the bishop.

e Rev. Smith, the beacon of the early St. James’–the one who envisaged the edi ce–would leave abruptly two years later, possibly because of this festering, unresolved con ict. Neal Robison would remain County Tax Collector until his death. Julius Meyenberg, who would serve on the church Vestry as Treasurer (1907) and a Warden, attending the Diocesan Council in 1918, would marry Hallie Robison, Neal’s widow. Meyenberg, who had lost his mother and four of his siblings in the 1867 Yellow Fever Epidemic, owned a pharmacy (started by his father, Julius, Sr.) for 55 years, selling in 1944. e younger Meyenberg and Hallie lived in a mansion built by Hallie and her rst husband, Neal Robison. It was on the square at 143 N. Main. In 1997 it was moved nearer to the river, at 710 Travis Street and became Boss’ Steak House and is, as of this writing (2021), for sale.

Julius Meyenberg

Mr and Mrs. Meyenberg Leaving their Home

Boss’ Steakhouse (formerly Meyenberg Home)

Faison House Postcard

Faison House Painting

EDWARD T. MANTON AND THE FAISON BROTHERS

The Journeys of Edward and Nathaniel

Most settlers who came to the edgling Fayette County in the mid-19th century were in their prime, eager to enter the cotton business or otherwise ply their various trades in the new economy. Two prominent exceptions were Judge Livingston Lindsay and Edward Manton, both vestry members at St. James’. In 1860 the judge moved to La Grange at the then advanced age of 54 to be near his daughter, Georgiana Shropshire, a key mover in the origin of the church.

By contrast, Manton came to the area in 1833 at 13. He had turned 21 when he joined omas J. Rabb’s volunteer company, which, with Nicolas Mosby Dawson’s company, gave chase to General Rafael Vásquez and his Mexican army. Vásquez had captured San Antonio on March 5, 1842, the sixth anniversary of Santa Anna’s victory over the Alamo. Two days a er the capture, Manton, his later-tobe-fellow St. James’ parishioner, William Burnam, and the rest of the Rabb/Dawson companies chased the 600 or so Mexican forces across the Rio Grande and abruptly gave up the pursuit.

One of Santa Anna’s generals, Adrian Woll, would descend on San Antonio six months later, in September 1842. Woll and his 1,000 men would stay only a few days and then retreat, taking 67 Texan prisoners with them.

Ever courageous, Dawson gathered 15 men under the old Muster Oak in La Grange and marched o to punish those behind the incursion. Future St. James’ parishioner Edward Manton and Nathaniel Faison joined him. By the time Dawson reached the Woll forces near Salado Creek, he had picked up additional volunteers, numbering 54. All but 18, including Dawson, were cut down by the Mexican ghters.

Muster Oak

However, Edward Manton and Nat Faison survived. ey were shackled together and marched to the Perote Prison some 800 miles away in the state of Veracruz. Manton wrote about the massacre, the grueling march south, and the harsh conditions of the prison, the omnipresent lice, and the meager food. e prisoners were freed 15 months later, in 1844, and returned to Fayette County. Four years a er being freed Manton and Faison returned to the scene of the Dawson Massacre and retrieved the remains of their comrades, which would later be buried at Monument Hill in La Grange, now a State Historic Site at the top of the La Grange blu . Manton would do well in real estate in the area and become a stalwart county leader and a prominent gure in St. James’. He would serve on the vestry with Livingston Lindsay when, in 1868, Georgiana Shropshire, Lindsay’s daughter, would deed the land for a future church building. is was the year a er the Yellow Fever Epidemic took the life of her husband Benjamin and fully one- h of the St. James’ parish communicants.

Perote Prision

e Manton Cabin

Peter Faison, Nat’s brother, served as Treasurer on the St. James’ Vestry from 1884 to 86, the period the Shropshire’s lot on Travis Street was exchanged for the adjacent lot upon which the church now stands. Livingston Lindsay served with Peter Faison on the vestry that oversaw this lot-swap with the Shropshire heirs. is is the timeframe of the building of the church.

Peter was among the leadership of St. James’ and was Junior Warden in 1894.

Like Manton, Peter would do well in real estate, which allowed him and his family to spend extravagantly. But it was not Peter’s initiative that allowed him to prosper; it was his inheriting his deceased brother’s holdings.

A er returning to Fayette County from his imprisonment in Mexico, Nat made a fortune by buying property from struggling Confederate landowners during the Civil War. Soon a er the war ended, he contributed towards the building of institutions bolstering the African-American community: a school, a church, and a cemetery. He would serve as County Court Clerk for nine years.

Nat bought a house from a May Herron in 1866; the Faison House, as it is known, is on S. Je erson Street near where Je erson crosses the Colorado River in La Grange. e restored and preserved house, built in the 1840s, is one of the oldest such structures in Texas.

One would assume the childless Nat, who died in 1870, le his home, furnishings, and entire fortune to his brother Peter. But that would be incorrect.

Rather, Nathaniel Faison’s will stipulated that his home, furnishings, buggy, horse, pony, and $3,000 in gold coins be le to his housekeeper, Louisiana Brown. “Lou” Brown was a former enslaved person whom Nat hired to keep house a er she was freed and until his death at 52 in June 1870. She would be the rst freed person to inherit property in Texas. ( ose gold coins would be worth close to $100,000 in the 2020s.)

Old Temple Lumberyard

Nathaniel Faison

With the inheritance from his brother, Peter was able to live in a pro igate manner. He moved his family to La Grange to take over his brother’s business. In 1872 he persuaded Louisiana Brown—who had “bought” the Faison house for a token $5—to sell it to him for $3,000. She must have been a shrewd bargainer since Nat paid only $1,800 six years earlier, making for a 67% appreciation. She eventually bought a house at Je erson and Pearl streets and went by “Lou Faison” for the rest of her life.

When Peter died, his son Jimmy took possession of the house. Jimmy’s wife Julia played the pump organ for St. James’ and died in 1960. Peter Faison and his family had lived in the Faison House for 88 years.

In 1961 the La Grange Garden Club purchased the home for $5,500 borrowed from local citizens. Club members oversaw the complete restoration of house and grounds. At present, the Faison House is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Peter and Susan Faison

erhaps the most in uential family in the St. James’ story would be the Shropshires, Benjamin and Georgiana and their children. They came to ayette County from entucky in 1852 so Ben could open a law practice. Soon a erwards the Shropshires joined the St. James’ congregation, perhaps being present for the county’s first Episcopal baptism, that of Mrs. Julia Lee Sinks, her children, et al. in May of that year. The Centennial Committee of La Grange in 1876 asked Julia Sinks to record her early reminiscences of ayette County. Her resulting roni les of ayette would not be published until 100 years later, to prepare for the Bicentennial celebration.

Apparently, the Shropshires thought well of their new home for Ben’s brother Samuel would follow two years a er Ben’s relocation, settling in Colorado County on a 750-acre plantation with his 61 slaves. Although Samuel Shropshire was a slave

Geo ana S o s e

the Texas Militia he dubbed the “Rough and Ready Rebels.”

In 1865, True Issue announced the defeat of the South and closed shop. Ben would be appointed District Judge, but Reconstruction sentiments were not friendly to secessionist sympathizers. He was removed from o ce in early 1867.

Benjamin Shropshire died in the Yellow Fever Epidemic that decimated Fayette County in that year. is was also the year his widow donated a city lot meant for a future physical church building, a lot adjacent to the lot upon which St. James’ now stands.

e great ood of 1869 stopped most of the progress church members had envisioned. But it didn’t stop Georgiana from traveling to New York fundraising for the church. With the $800 (equivalent to over $15,000 in the 2020s) she raised, the parishioners were able to buy the Old Academy Building four years a er her trip. e St. James’ Chapel was located upstairs, the school—where Georgiana would teach until her death in 1877—downstairs. Her father, Judge Lindsay, was a vestry member as was Peter Faison when, in 1884, Ben and Georgiana’s heirs switched the corner lot at Travis and Monroe deeded to the church, to the one at Monroe and Colorado. In a year’s time, the Old Academy Building was sold for a loss ($650) and the building of the present church began. is year, 1885, the German cargo ship the City of Berlin hit an iceberg o the coast of Newfoundland and was damaged. However, a memorial window called “Faith” riding in her hold was not damaged, nor were her companion windows. e window was commissioned by the Shropshire heirs and is the central memorial window in the south transept of the sanctuary.

It would be di cult to overestimate the tremendous impact Benjamin and Georgiana Shropshire and their heirs had on the birth and growth of St. James’ Episcopal Church of La Grange.

Old Ewing Academy Treasurer’s Report, 1867

Livingston Lindsay

CLERGY AS FAMILY: THE STORIES OF IVES, GREGG, AND GILLETTE

The First Episcopalian

Several Episcopal clergymen in uenced potential congregants even before the congregation was formed in 1855 and named “Trinity Church.” Bishop G.W. Freeman visited La Grange in 1848 and later returned to conduct the rst con rmation—of Julia Lee Sinks—in 1854. e Rev. Hannibal Pratt served as the rst missionary to that nascent congregation, later to be renamed “St. James’,” from the time of the congregation’s formation until his death in December 1857, so renamed because the bishop said there were already too many churches named Trinity. e rst o cial to plant the seed that was to grow into the ower that is St. James’ was the Rev. Caleb Ives. He le his home in Matagorda in October 1840, en route to Austin where he was to be the rst Episcopalian to o ciate in that city. On his way, passing through La Grange, he apparently became charmed by the little town; he said he thought it would be a tting place for a mission. is may have been the rst sowing of the idea that would, 15 years later, blossom into the forming of a congregation. Matagorda was an important port in early-19th century. It was the gateway to the oceans at the mouth of the Colorado River, rivers being the far more economical way to transport cargo and goods: ere being no roads and scant law and order meant that overland cartage was expensive and dangerous. When the leadership of Matagorda invited Ives to open a school, it was a prestigious request. Ives accepted and was able to get appointed for a second role: as the rst o cial missionary of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the Republic. His yearly salary: $500. Being the sole religious leader in the port city and the only credentialed academic, the Rev. Ives was held in esteem. He returned that admiration

Bishop Freeman

to the town and worked arduously to administer the school, Matagorda Academy, and build the “Mother Church” of Texas, Christ Church of Matagorda.

In fact, he raised the money for the building of a church and oversaw the construction of the sections, built in New York, that would be shipped to Texas and assembled on site. Since there were no sawmills on the Texas coast, prefabricating sections elsewhere was necessary.

e Matagorda Hurricane in 1854 would level the church. It would be rebuilt at a lot close by, two years later, using some of the support structures, pews, the font, the communion rail, and more from the original.

Ives met in Galveston in 1843 with another St. James’ in uencer, the Rev. Charles Gillette of Houston. Together, and with others, they started the formidable process of establishing a diocese for the state. Six years later, on the rst day of 1849 at the church convention held at his own Christ Church of Matagorda, the Rev. Ives announced the formation of the o cial Protestant Episcopal Church in the Diocese of Texas.

Later that year the Rev. Ives would leave his beloved community, go to Vermont for health reasons, and die there at 51.

Mother Church, Matagorda

e Dale-Sisk-Rugeley House, e Rev. Ives’ rst home

community, and noted how tting a church would be there just as the Rev. Ives had done 19 years earlier. He didn’t stop there. Much later he would return to La Grange for the laying of the church cornerstone in 1885. He would come back early the following year to o ciate at the consecration

e Rev. Charles Gille e St. David’s, Austin

of the church. And then in 1889 he would spend three on-the-ground days helping the Rev. Smith resolve a mysterious con ict among the church members. Perhaps he stayed at the house that would become known as the Kaulbach House on the northwest corner of the intersection that St. James’ occupied, on the southeast.

Bishop Gregg’s ssure with the Rev. Gillette was, naturally, over the church’s position on the matters of secession and slavery in the run-up to the Civil War. As we’ve seen, the Rev. Gillette’s sentiments lay with the abolitionists and nonsecessionists. Bishop Gregg’s were quite the opposite.

Gregg was born on a plantation in South Carolina. His sympathy for what was to become the Confederacy was evident in 1859 when the General Convention elected him the rst Bishop of the Diocese of Texas. is was the liminal year of John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry and his subsequent hanging for treason, and only a year before South Carolina’s secession from the nation. And it cannot be a coincidence that the bishops and clergy of the 10 other seceding Southern states were manifestly pro-Confederacy. A er all, they showed scant hesitancy when it came time to break o from the Episcopal Church of the United States at the same time the Southern states were seceding from the United States.

Union Church Shared by Episcopalians and others

Article on a St. James’ Festival, Faye e County New Era, 1877

Bishop Gregg

Bishop Gregg readily agreed with the resolution adopted by the bishops in the Confederation of the Southern States of America that the creation of this new nation, “… renders it necessary and expedient that the Diocese in those states should form among themselves an independent organization.”

As the Episcopal Church of the United States was torn asunder, so too was the St. James’ congregation of La Grange. e number of communicants—there were only eight by 1865— dwindled, and there would be only desultory visits by supply priests during the war years. Several church members le to join the o cer ranks of the Confederate Army: Col. Timmons and Captains Shropshire, Price, Tate, and Richards, for example. Judge Livingston Lindsay, a stalwart supporter of St. James’, remained at the church’s helm and would be there to nurture the church through the war and the Reconstruction period that followed.

AFTER THE WAR: THE RECONCILING

“God has le sin in the world in order that there may be forgiveness: not only the secret forgiveness by which He Himself cleanses our souls, but the manifest forgiveness by which we have mercy on one another and so give expression to the fact that He is living, by His mercy, in our own hearts.”  - omas Merton

The Rejoining

e argument was bitter between the Rev. Gillette, the deliverer of the rst sermon to the forerunner of the La Grange Episcopal congregation, and Bishop Gregg who would be active with the St. James’ parishioners throughout the church’s birth, growth, and emergence as a tangible, physical presence.

Confederate Veterans of Faye e County

One of the most heated exchanges between the rector of abolitionist sentiments and the pro-Confederate bishop was over the wording of a prayer. e bishop had written a prayer for use by the churches of the diocese that referred to the “unnatural war which has been forced upon us ….” O ended by the phrase, “which was forced upon us,” the Rev. Gillette asked for and received the bishop’s permission to omit that ve-word expression when reciting the prayer.

e clergy of the Southern Diocese though were thoroughly displeased by the bishop’s yielding on this point; they passed a resolution at their convention of 1864 to force Bishop Gregg to revoke that permission, which he did. But the Rev. Gillette would not budge. e two would generate a voluminous amount of acrimonious correspondence about the issue. e Rev. Gillette, clearly wounded, at one point invited the bishop to come take over his own Christ Church duties and he would acquiesce. At the war’s end, in 1865, the Rev. Gillette would leave Texas and go to the North to petition the now reuni ed general convention about his grievance with the bishop. But the delegates at the convention just a er the cessation of the war were in no mood to entertain controversy; it was reconciliation and comity with their returning Southern brethren they pursued.

at reconciliation was swi . e Northerners welcomed the disenfranchised Southerners with almost no dissension. Perhaps the word most appropriate in characterizing their rejoining is: forgiveness. Or, perhaps, atonement is a better description.

e Episcopal Church was the rst Christian denomination to come back together following the Civil War. Some denominations that split apart still have not reunited a er over 150 years.

-Jim Austin

BRICK AND MORTAR:

THE BELL TOWER STORY AND THE BELL

ere is a lovely neo-Gothic tower at the northwest corner of the architecturally iconic church on Monroe Street between Travis and Colorado. In August 2017 a erce hurricane almost destroyed the tower. e sanctuary and bell tower damaged by the raging Hurricane Harvey underwent repair in September 2017.

is work, overseen by the church’s own veteran helicopter pilot and indefatigable taskmaster, Junior Warden Chuck Gibson, was rededicated by Bishop Kai Ryan on Trinity Sunday, 2019. To the historicity and the bell tower in particular: St. James’ became a physical entity when the sanctuary was completed in 1885 to 86.

e bell tower must have been commissioned a year or so later because the 711-pound bell was shipped from its foundry in West Troy (now Watervliet), New York arriving in La Grange in 1892. e bell cost the church $216. (West Troy was incorporated in 1836, about the same time Texas delegates met at Washington-on-the-Brazos to declare separation from Mexico and to found the new Republic of Texas.) ere were two rival, proli c Meneely Bell companies, both on the shores of the Hudson River. Between them, they produced 65,000 bells before closing in 1952. Several of their bells dwarfed the 700-pounder; one was over 3,100 pounds. e original Meneely company established in 1826 produced St. James’ bell. e repair and restoration, according to Gibson, turned up some interesting items. e workers tore into the foundation a er uncovering rotted and termite-chewed, gigantic beams, both vertical and horizontal. ere they found ancient relics. (One of these beams has been repurposed as a long-leaf pine reception desk in the new foyer by St. James’ own Ray Landry and Glenn Calliotte.) e most interesting nd was the tolling hammer that is supposed to be attached to the bell’s support frame.

Reception Desk Made from Bell Tower Wood

A tolling hammer is a xed mid-way along its length to the base or frame of the bell. e hammer end extends into the cavity of the bell while its lever protrudes outside its circumference. When the rope tied to the end of the lever is tugged, the hammer pivots seesaw-like and slams into the inside wall of the bell.

Sunday morning bell ringing is quite di erent. at’s when the rope puller is repeatedly pulling the bell’s lever, causing the bell itself to rock back and forth. at way it is the bell that slams into the clapper hanging from its support.

e tolling comprises singular, discreet rings with solemn pauses between rings, and is rung on only three occasions. Called a passing toll, it’s rung for an impending death; a death knell, for a death; and a corpse knell or lych—not to be confused with “lynch” — bell, rung as the funeral toll as the body is being delivered to the church for the funeral.

e restoration team retrieved the tolling hammer from the dirt, carefully cleaned and joined it back to its proper place on the bell frame where it was then ready for whom the bell tolls.

e discovery of the items from the origin of the church brought to mind the historicity to many parishioners. e year the church was founded, Big Ben chimed for the rst time during the construction of the bell tower at Westminster Palace; and workers in a limestone quarry in the German Rhineland unearthed the rst Neanderthal Man. While the church was established in 1856, it would be three more years before Darwin would publish On

the Origin of the Species

Now, there had to have been a group of Fayette County folks, a founding committee, in 1855 petitioning the diocese for an o cial church designation. Certainly, one or more were in their early ies. at means they were around when Aaron Burr shot Alexander Hamilton dead. And those slightly older, in their mid-to-late ies? ey breathed the same air as one of their contemporaries, George Washington.

e relics uncovered at the site when the restoration crew tore out the rotted foundation of the

bell tower were just as jaw-dropping as the historical parallels of the founding of the church.

Take the nails of the original construction, some of which had fallen to the ground from the termite-degraded wooden beams. Known as “type B” nails, they were hand-wrought, fashioned from thin iron rods. A blacksmith would forge tapers into heated shanks positioned on a nailers’ block, place them vertically in a bore mold, and hammer the ends to form nail heads. (Machine-forged nails made from steel, not iron-wire, became de rigueur soon a erwards, in the 1890s.) A nailer’s job was a hardscrabble way to earn a living and fell mainly to women and children. It was said a seasoned nailer could make four nails a minute.

Construction nails were carried to the site in lidded wooden buckets commonly called rkins. One of these, which in the 2020s would attract keen interest from antique dealers, was le at the site by the construction crew 128 years before. ey also abandoned a shovel whose handle was fashioned by hand from a single piece of lumber. ere sat a bottle on the desk of the rector, Fr. Eric Hungerford. Junior Warden Chuck Gibson and the construction crew found it under the tower foundation where it had lain for 128 years discarded by a previously thirsty, longexpired worker no doubt. Held to the light, the glass shimmers producing a kind of gleaming rainbow sheen. is pre-Civil War-era bottle seems to embody the deep history of the site. Some say glass is really slowly moving liquid, not the solid it appears to be. And over time, a cheap bottle in stasis will succumb to gravity’s pull, change composition just a bit. erefore, layers within the glass itself coagulate, creating layers that re ect light somewhat di erently from surrounding layers. Voilà, rainbows.

-Jim Austin

Nails from Original Bell Tower Construction

Conference Table Made from Bell Tower Wood Made by Glenn Callio e and Ray Landry

Bishop Kai Ryan and Father Eric Hungerford Blessing the Restored Bell Tower

Paul (Trey) Cheatham in New Bell Tower and Vesting Room

THE ST. JAMES’ SANCTUARY: THE ARCHITECTURE AND THE STAINED GLASS

Oh, the Beauty You’ll Find

e subject of church ornamentation may twist in the Episcopalian’s heart. e Protestant in us may think needlepoint cushions and wood carvings are distractions from the great love and real work of the church. rough our Catholic heritage, though, we may see things di erently: beauty as God’s gi , and beauty-making as a form of worship, even evangelism.

e Rev. W.G.W. Smith, St. James’ rst fulltime rector, sided with the beauty-makers. Like many Episcopalians of his day, the Rev. Smith appears to have been caught up in the “high church” spirit of the times. eologically, the Oxford Movement had bent Anglican practice toward greater formality and ritual. In English arts and letters, John Ruskin and William Morris, among others, extolled ne design as a bridge between the leisured and the laboring classes. Meanwhile, late-19th century innovations in production and transportation were making ornate metalwork, fancy wallpapers, and stained glass far more accessible.

ese liturgical, aesthetic, and consumer trends converged in church architecture and decoration as the Gothic Revival. Strange as it may seem in our own times, proponents of the Gothic Revival believed that steep gables and leaded glass could change lives. e making and appreciation of such beautiful forms, they argued, could re-establish the virtues of cra smanship, bring grandeur to everyday life, and o er spiritual depth in an era of runaway industrialization. We don’t know too much about the Rev. Smith. We do know that in 1876 when he rst came to La Grange, it had been less than a decade since so many of the St. James’ congregation had died of yellow fever. en came two major oods that “blighted the prospects of the town.” A Philadelphian inspired by the Gothic Revival, the Rev. Smith had arrived in a country town that was starting over. In 1883 he retained R.M. Upjohn to design a building for St. James’. e architect and even more so

his father, Richard Upjohn, were renowned for their dedication to “high church” style. e Upjohn rm had designed several large urban churches: Trinity, Ascension, and Calvary in New York City, Christ Episcopal in Raleigh, St. Paul’s Cathedral in Bu alo, and St. Mark’s in San Antonio. Having established his reputation as a master of Gothic Revival design, the elder Upjohn turned style into an architectural ministry. By mid-century, he was o ering his services for free “to at least one mission church a year.”

Upjohn was soon overcome with requests. He responded by publishing a guide and pattern book that could be adapted in small towns everywhere. Upjohn’s Rural Architecture: Designs, Working Drawings and Speci cations for a Wooden Church, and Other Rural Structures (1852), selling for ve dollars a copy, spread what came to be known as “Carpenter Gothic” architecture throughout the US.

Historian Lawrence Wodehouse cites the key elements of Carpenter Gothic as “steep roofs, board and batten walls, and narrow pointed windows, suited to the skills and materials of local builders.” Scores of country congregations used Richard Upjohn’s specs to achieve some of the gravitas of medievalism, whether in the piney woods of North Carolina or along the front range of Colorado’s Rockies.

e design for St. James’ was original, the brainchild of R.M. Upjohn rather than a knocko based on his father’s published drawings. But it too could be described as Carpenter Gothic in its simplicity: its steep roof, board and batten construction, the dominant ribs and beams of the sanctuary, and its abundant stained glass.

For many of us, the St. James’ windows are the most awe-inspiring and beloved physical feature of the church. Who made them? John Carey, who restored them in 1980 to 81, believes most of the windows were ordered from a catalog. Carey told the St. James’ Episcopal Church Women that even Ti any, famous for its one-of-a-kind lamps and windows, had a mail-order department through which customers could choose from an array of designs. e Rev. Fuller’s reference to the Rev. Smith’s “selection” of window designs suggests they were indeed chosen from a catalog or showroom.

Attributing the memorial windows to “a celebrated artist in Europe” is little help. By the 1880s the zeal for Gothic Revival church construction across Europe and the US was fullblown; there were hundreds, perhaps thousands, of prospering glass works, not only in England but also in Scotland, Germany, Belgium, France, Austria, Spain, and the United States. Until a sketch, bill of sale, or diary entry materializes, we have only our eyes to go on.

e evidence available thus far points to Charles Booth. Born 1844 in Liverpool, Booth had come to the United States by 1875 and set up both a glass works in East Orange, New Jersey, and a showroom at 47 Lafayette Place in Manhattan, in a building owned by the city’s Episcopal diocese. From 1880 until Booth’s death in 1893, nearly every issue of e Churchman, the monthly magazine of the Episcopal Church, included a small notice for “Charles Booth–Glass Stainer.” the Rev. Smith undoubtedly would have come upon Booth’s work and perhaps the man himself on his frequent trips to New York to raise funds for the new La Grange church.

e only early mention of the windows concerns the elaborate trio on the lower south transept. In part, they speak for themselves. As inscribed, they were gi s of Benjamin and Georgiana Shropshire’s children in 1885, memorials to their parents. Bishop Alexander Gregg, writing to the Texas diocese following his participation in the church’s consecration, February 28, 1886, admired the memorial windows as “chaste and handsome” and noted that they had been “executed by a celebrated artist in Europe.” Clearly more of a newshound than an art historian, Bishop Gregg dwelled on the windows’ tortuous journey from England to the US aboard the steamship the City of Berlin. In his letter to the diocese, Bishop Gregg related that the steamer “encountered an iceberg on her voyage and was injured, but most happily this most precious part of the cargo escaped harm.”

e windows themselves, however, o er their own vivid evidence. Most stained glass of the time features primary colors, but the St. James’ windows are quite distinctive, with panes in amber, apricot, amethyst purple. ese surprising tertiary colors are similar to those found in Booth’s most renowned project: the Je erson Market Library, originally New York’s ird Judicial District courthouse, built in 1877. e same building features two remarkable women, who appear to be secular cousins of St. James’ “Faith.” ey share her bow-shaped mouth, pale skin, crescent brows, heavy but graceful jaw line, and coils of wavy red hair. e three-quarter pro le, a penchant for crowns, and the hearttouching gesture are also family traits.

Booth’s illustrated pamphlet of 1877 Modern Surface Ornament includes the undulant leaf design found in many of St. James’ windows. And while stained-glass makers of the time typically didn’t sign their work, they o en smuggled in signature motifs. Booth was known to “sign” with a prominent sun ower. ere’s a bold one just to the right of Faith, and in the St. James’ memorial windows alongside her—rondels with the opening verse of Psalm 23—the leaf motif and a stylized sun ower appear in alternating pattern.

Donald Clapper undertook a survey of Booth’s work throughout the US, a er learning that Booth had designed the windows in his own church in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Corresponding with St. Luke’s Episcopal, Lincolnton, North Carolina, Clapper con rms that its windows had been made by Booth. In his attribution, he points to the rondel design at St. Luke’s, writing that it “must have been one of [Booth’s] favorites. ere are six or eight copies of it across the country”—actually, eight or 10, as we can include the pair at St. James’. e Rev. Smith and his congregation, still struggling to recover from the fatalities of yellow fever, two natural disasters, and La Grange’s stunted prospects for commerce, took on the great challenge of building a beautiful house of worship. Challenges of our own day (2021) have kept us apart from this sacred place. How tting that just this year (2020) an expansion project has been underway, very much in keeping with the “chaste and handsome” vision of our predecessors.

“Praise God for those in every generation in whom Christ has been honored. Pray that we may have grace to glorify Christ in our own day.”

-Julie Ardery

EXPANSION 2020: A CLEAR VISION REALIZED

Dating back to 2004 when Bob Hays was Senior Warden, some members wanted the congregation to provide extra space for the church and school. However, the idea of a new growth project received mixed support; this was during stressful economic times, so it was not pursued.

e expansion idea was raised several times over the next 10 years, but support was still lacking, and no substantial action was taken. Eventually, however, the lack of space became so apparent—with meetings overlapping meetings and a signi cant waiting list for children to enroll in the preschool—that taking action became imperative.

In 2017, Bill Bishop and Suzanne MorrissBatchelder conducted an in-person interview with Dr. David G. Woodcock of St. omas Episcopal Church in College Station seeking guidance and recommendations on how to proceed. Dr. Woodcock, Professor Emeritus of the School of Architecture at Texas A&M and Director Emeritus of the Center for Heritage Conservation, had been instrumental in the expansion of St. omas and its school. St. James’ periodically retained him throughout the early stages of the expansionplanning project; his services were invaluable.

In March 2017 Bill and Suzanne organized a church-wide meeting moderated by Dr. Woodcock to poll the congregation on their thoughts on expansion needs. He gathered suggestions and desires and prepared a list.

Initial plans were to form committees and pursue expansion in the fall of 2017. Regrettably, Hurricane Harvey struck Texas in August that year causing extensive damage to the bell tower. Expansion had to be put on hold until repairs to the tower were well underway. ose repairs were de ly handled by Dana Wiedemann and Jordan Wiedemann of the rm Total Residential.

Under Senior Warden Ken Berg, a Strategic Planning Committee formed in April 2018 to nalize the plans for expansion. Because the St. James’

congregation is a big family, the goal was to maintain the closeness of the church family and ful ll the diverse wishes of everyone. e Committee was composed of Audrey Wick, Bill Bishop, Carol Helms, Chuck Gibson, Joe Bailey, Laurie Krupala, Pinky Wilson, Ken Berg, and Fr. Eric Hungerford. In June 2018 the Strategic Planning Committee morphed into the Building Committee with the same membership. eir mission: to hire an architect to complete a Master Plan for Expansion. e Committee interviewed those on a list of architects recommended by the Diocese of Texas and others. A er thorough interviews and review of submitted Statements of Quali cations the committee unanimously selected Heimsath Architects of Austin. e Heimsath group was chosen in part because they had built and remodeled many churches including the Rothko Chapel in Houston, the Church of the Good Shepherd in Austin, Christ Church in Temple, and Holy Spirit Episcopal Church in Waco. Soon Heimsath organized a large assembly composed of the Building Committee, the Vestry, a member of each outreach program, and any other interested members of the church. Each person submitted his or her ideas for the expansion; the group was then given the task to rate the drawings of the plans submitted. e most popular plan was chosen as the basis of the Master Plan for St. James’. rough many months of meetings and discussions attended by the architect and occasionally by Dr. Woodcock, the Committee nalized the proposed Master Plan and the proposed budget. Heimsath completed the Master

Parish Meeting with David Woodcock

Audrey Wick at Whiteboard, Expansion Planning Meeting

Plan and submitted it to the Committee in April 2019. e recommendation of the Building Committee to accept the Master Plan was then submitted to the Vestry for approval. A presentation on June 13, 2019, to the Board of Church Corporation and representatives for Bishop Doyle resulted in enthusiastic approval to proceed with the project.

e Building Committee was then disbanded, and two new committees were formed to carry out fundraising and oversee the implementation of Phase One of the Master Plan. e mission of the Capital Campaign Committee, co-chaired by Joe Bailey and Susie Glasscock, was to raise funds and obtain credit to nance the project. e Construction Committee was tasked with hiring an architect for Phase One and overseeing the construction e ort. at committee was chaired by Mel Glasscock and included James Cauble, Carol Helms, Chuck Gibson, and Joe Jameson.

e Capital Campaign kicked o in April 2019 and was successful beyond all expectations.

e congregation was solidly behind the e ort and generously supported it. ey established a credit line for the balance of the project costs with Fayetteville Bank, and the funding was securely in place.

e Construction Committee also kicked o in April 2019 by discussing plans and voting to hire Heimsath to complete drawings for Phase One in May. Following were many meetings with the architects to work out detailed drawings, review surveys, and commission soil tests. is committee also had to review the plans with the Texas Historical Commission and receive their approval to proceed, which it achieved in October 2019. A er drawings were completed, this committee selected Gaeke Construction in April 2020 as General Contractor for the project. Interestingly, Gaeke had also been the General Contractor for the construction of the church’s education building, parish hall extension, and kitchen in 1984. Construction began in May 2020 and was blessed and dedicated by Bishop Kathryn M. Ryan on December 13, 2020.

We hope that the legacy of the project will be to enable our church to ful ll our future needs. e entire congregation enthusiastically received and supported this project, which involved so many of our parishioners.

-Ken Berg, Carol Helms, Chuck Gibson

“St. James’ presented a di erent experience; it was small and intimate. So many of the communicants have passed away since then, but the interior of the church has not really changed. When Anne was alive, we always felt enriched by the friendships formed at St. James’, and, of course, I still do. We loved the Supper Club gatherings, especially the hot tub at the Kahaneks’!”

- Stewart Chuber

MINISTRIES

The Ministries: A Summary

“I came to St. James’ in 1992 from All Saints Church in Austin. I was at St. James’ for ve years and loved the communicants. We had an average attendance of about 40 on Sundays. If two families went camping, it was a disaster for attendance! When I le , there were about 68 attending. St. James’ had a very active congregation with a great deal of volunteering. In 1995 we embarked on a massive project, the Second Chance Emporium. Also, a ministerial alliance was formed to sponsor the AMEN food pantry at that time. St. James’ donated $400 a month to AMEN and also played a critical role in getting Second Chance underway. Other churches were recruited, and everyone in town pitched in. Sometimes, I would nd a bag of clothes at the church door.” – e Rt. Rev. Dena Harrison

ough St. James’ has only two administrative sta members, its accomplishments would suggest a much greater workforce. is is because of its devoted volunteers who form teams the church refers to as ministries. e governing body of St. James’ is the Vestry. ese volunteers, including a vestry clerk and treasurer, meet once a month with the priest presiding. Decisions are made for the bene t of the church. e Altar Guild comprises a dozen or so parishioners who prepare the church for every service including weddings, funerals, baptisms, and events on holy days. ese volunteers’ plans vary with the season: Epiphany, Easter, Pentecost, Christmas, etc. e Order of the Daughters of the King is dedicated to prayer, service, and evangelism. e Episcopal Church Women involves all the women of the church. ey play an active part in church activities: fundraising for scholarships, nursing home visitations, bake sales, setting up for receptions a er weddings, funerals, or events associated with visits by the bishop. e Men’s Club promotes service, fellowship, and devotional activities among the men of St. James’.

Traveling Eucharist

e social ministry is the Supper Club. Members gather monthly to visit, dine, and enjoy one another’s company. e Club gives new members a chance to meet fellow parishioners and learn about St. James’. e St. James’ Shepherds are the pastoral care committee of the church. When someone needs help—maybe a ride to a doctor’s appointment, meals for a family a er returning from a hospital stay—the St. James’ Shepherds will make it happen. During the 2020 to 21 pandemic, volunteers made phone calls to check on church families. e Prayer Shawl Ministry provides a knitted shawl for someone who may need special comfort during a di cult time. e shawl is blessed by the priest. Our beautiful Columbarium is taken care of by a volunteer. We have an emergency phone list for our members, which is updated by a volunteer. e food pantry, AMEN, is sta ed once a month by St. James’ volunteers, as is Second Chance Emporium. e landscaping around our church is maintained with care by a volunteer. Our volunteers make things happen behind the scenes. It takes a village to stand together and take care of each other. St. James’ is a very special church in that way.

-Cathy Sterman

“ e church used to stage an annual picnic in the spring. It was an all-day outing, with an egg toss, games, and just plain fun. is predated the Supper Club, which was started by the Rev. David Puckett. Everyone loved Supper Club. e hot tub on the Kahanek’s back porch was a huge attraction, so huge some lingered until 3:00 am only to depart and spend the rest of the night in their cars.” -

Mary Kahanek

Prayer Shawls

“We have been so fortunate to nd St. James’. When my wife, Anne died a few years ago, we knew we wanted to become part of the Columbarium project and therefore always be close to our wonderful church. I o en sit in that quiet and beautiful Meditation Garden.” - Stewart

Chuber

“We all enjoyed the Supper Club and the Parish Picnics. St. James’ was a wonderful family, lled with welcoming, hardworking, joyful, committed people, endearing and generous with their resources. It seems every crazy new thing I would think of our communicants would support. We had an Easter service in the square, a sunrise service in the park in Giddings with a large re in the water trough. We started a Bible study twice-a-month in Smithville and Giddings, and we applied for a grant to underwrite the costs of an assistant to help the Episcopal Church in those two communities. Fayette County has an older population and we learned you don’t have to have young families for a church to be healthy; you get whom God sends you!” - e

Rt. Rev. Dena Harrison

St. James’ Church was built to provide a place of worship for the Episcopalians of ayette County. Two services are held in the church every Sunday with weekday services scheduled at the discretion of the priest and on significant holy days, which include Ash ednesday, All Saints’ ay, Christmas, and Holy eek. All services follow the Book of Common rayer of The Episcopal Church with o erings of Rite I, an updated traditional form, and Rite II in more contemporary language. All people are invited to join with parishioners in worship. All baptized Christians are invited to partake of the bread and wine o ered during the eucharist communion . The format of the services, the attire of the priest, lay ministers and choir, and the roles they perform in the ritual of the church hark back to the beginnings of Christianity and have, over time, become infused with ideas and elements of the Anglican culture in which the Episcopal Church has its roots.

Most services begin with a processional from the rear door of the church to the foot of the altar. This is led by a lay minister the crucifer carrying a cross and dressed in a white robe an alb . The crucifer may be accompanied by acolytes carrying the Gospel Book and also dressed in an alb or black cassock overlaid with a white blouse cotta or surplice . They may be followed by the choir dressed in red cassocks and white surplices. The priest enters last. He or she will wear an alb with a stole. If the service is to include a eucharist, an oval garment called a chasuble be worn over the alb and stole. The stole and chasuble are o en made of a richer material such as silk brocade, in colors ascribed to the church seasons and embellished with symbols. These vestments match the hangings paraments on the pulpit and the lectern and the coverings for the eucharistic elements.

The reader speaks from the lectern on the east side of the chancel. The priest sermonizes from the pulpit on the west side. In recent times, the altars in Episcopal churches have been reoriented to allow the priest to celebrate the eucharist facing the congregation seated in the nave. The pedestal upon which the cross sits is a box, the tabernacle, which contains wine and hosts or wafers the bread which will have been blessed during the eucharist.

e red (sanctuary) lamp above the credence table is lit if consecrated items are contained in the tabernacle. Prior to any service including a eucharist, the credence table, the shelf to the right of the altar is set with cruets of wine and water, a bread box (ciborium) of people’s hosts and a bowl (lavabo) and towel for the ceremonial washing of hands. e altar table is set with a cup (chalice) upon which is placed a plate (paten) holding a large wafer (priest’s host) and covered with a veil and burse which match the vestments and paraments. ese items are set out before the service by the Altar Guild, parishioners who have committed to prepare the church for all services and to clean and restore service items. e large (sanctuary) bell is rung during the service to indicate the presence of Christ invoked during the eucharist.

e services of the eucharist and of morning prayer include praise, prayer of a rmation of faith, readings from the Old Testament and the New Testament, and the psalms and a sermon or homily o ered by the priest. Music and songs may be included, but are not necessary for any service. e priest alone is authorized to preside at the eucharist, baptisms, weddings, and funerals. A bishop is required for con rmation or reception of any individual into the church. All other services may be conducted by members of the parish who have been baptized and con rmed or received into the church although there is a preference for individuals who have participated in lay ministry training. Additional services may include morning prayer, evening prayer or compline, Taize, and e Way of the Cross.

- Suzanne Morriss-Batchelder

THE MUSIC OF ST. JAMES’: COME LET US SING UNTO THE LORD:

“I will sing of your love and justice; to you, Lord, I will sing praise.” - Psalm 101:1

The Music of the Church

ose rst Episcopalians who gathered to pray in La Grange more than 170 years ago would nd very little they recognized if they were magically dropped into this city in the 2020s—until they stepped inside the church. e Book of Common Prayer would comfort and sustain them, but they would also nd that they could sing along with many of the hymns chosen for next Sunday’s service.

e Hymnal of the Episcopal Church that was used in the 1840s listed 212 hymns, with only the texts printed, but by the time Alexander Gregg, the rst bishop of the new Diocese of Texas, arrived to consecrate St. James’, the 1872 hymnal had been approved, and it included some hymns earmarked for special occasions; so it’s very likely that on February 28, 1886, the choir led the congregation in singing “Christ Is Made the Sure Foundation.” at is Hymn 518 in today’s hymnal. Unfortunately, there are very few early records of the music of St. James’, so the glimpses we nd are precious. We know from a report in the Fayette County New Era, April 15, 1877, that St. James’ had not only an organ but a choir “with well-trained voices.” e article reports that in “a ower banked church,” they sang the Easter Anthem “Christ Is Risen from the Dead.” is was eight years before the cornerstone of the church was laid, when the congregation met on the second oor of the Old Academy Building on Walnut Street.

e local newspaper had another account of those “well-trained voices” from February 1887, when “the ladies of the Episcopal Church” held a fundraiser at Casino Hall, with songs, piano performances, and a “beautiful tableau.” One could surmise that the fundraising was for repairs to the church, which had been struck by lightning the

“At this time, I was blessed to experience good fortune in the oil business. When the Sanctuary Candle was given to the church—it was a wonderful gi —it prompted Anne and me to think about also giving something special to the church. We had the desire and the ability. So, when the choir director said, ‘We need a new organ,’ we felt, ‘ at’s it; a new organ would be the perfect gi .’ We knew how important music was, and is, to our church.” - Stewart Chuber

Casino Hall

“When I was ve to seven, my duty was to pump the organ. e organ could be powered by foot pedals, or by a handle on the side of the organ. e organist was Miss Faison, who was quite elderly. She would quickly tire of using the foot pedals, so young boys would move the handle back and forth.” - Carl

Luckenbach

“ e church had a small pipe organ that [my wife] Julie was asked to play. e organ had three voices and sounded a bit like a calliope! It had a little keyboard and no pedals. Julie and I had studied piano as children, so I played the piano and Julie played the organ. We played both instruments together for about 25 years.” - Jim

Holmes

previous spring, shortly a er its consecration. Once in the new church, and with a new pump organ donated in 1895, the choir continued to lead the congregation in song, even through the years of struggle when St. James’ didn’t have a resident rector and the congregation dwindled to the point that the parish was remitted to mission status. Yet in those darkest days, the music never completely ceased. Small groups of devoted parishioners held the church together, and by the mid-1940s there was a regular church organist, a “Miss Faison,” and a boys’ choir. Carl Luckenbach, who was baptized at St. James’ in 1945, tells us that when he was a child, he and other boys of the parish had to “pump the organ” because the organist, an “elderly woman,” would quickly tire of using the foot pedals. rough the 1950s and 60s, as the nation and Fayette County recovered from the war and grew, so did St. James’. In 1965 the women of the parish, through their tireless fundraising e orts, collected $5,000 and purchased a new pipe organ. e ancient pump organ was nally put to rest. Music programs in small churches are o en sustained by a handful of dedicated people, so one must assume that is what kept the members of St. James’ “singing praises to the Lord” through the 1970s and 80s. We know the names of a few of those music directors: Ann Brown, Charlotte Hillbolt, and Jeannie Russell. ey were talented musicians who could wear two hats for the choir: Each was both a singer and an instrumentalist.

In the next 10 years, the St. James’ music program expanded to include both organists and choir directors; this gave the singers the opportunity to hone their skills on new music. And the Episcopal Church, always ecumenical, was encouraging an even wider range of music in its worship. Li

Every Voice and Sing II, an African-American hymnal, came to St. James’ along with Hispanic and Native American melodies, and the chants of the Taize community. Diversity didn’t stop with the music. e choir directors also incorporated nontraditional musical instruments into the service. e variety was extraordinary. e choir was

New Organ and Piano

accompanied on various occasions by trumpets, cellos, accordions, utes, a whole choir of dulcimers, oboes, guitars, bagpipes, kettledrums, and handbells.

In the rst decade of 2000, new families, including many retired couples from Austin and Houston, moved into the La Grange area and 10 years of determined e orts of organizational stabilization by members of St. James’ came to fruition. e church grew in membership; its stewardship steadied. And the music program blossomed. More and more “serious” music was added to the repertoire of the choir. Ted Engel, director from 1998 through 2006, encouraged the members to take part in summer workshops to sharpen their skills and learn new music. e choir also became more visible; they sang with the Diocesan Choral Festival in Houston and with the Ministerial Alliance events in La Grange. Beverly Johnson joined the choir in those years and at this writing (2021) is still a member. She remembers the summer camps of those years, like the current choir camps, as both fun and productive.

All this created fertile ground and the choir director who came to St. James’ in 2006 was prepared to make the most of it. e year that Elva Ulbrich arrived was the rst year a er the celebration of St. James’ 150th anniversary. She and Sine Nomine, her choir from Friendswood, Texas, had joined St. James’ for a gala celebration. Elva had a lifetime of experience teaching and working with choral groups, and she lost no time. She, assisted by her husband Georg, expanded the choir. She found parishioners of varying talents, encouraged and trained them, and soon the St. James’ Choir was 26 voices strong and was “making a joyful noise” both in the church and the community. e music became an attraction for visitors to the church, and by 2012

Jim and Julie Holmes

Eric Batchelder and Weldon Koenig, tenors

“When Julie and I joined Charlotte Hillbolt was the choir director. A few years later Elva and Georg Ulbrich came to visit La Grange and St. James’. Elva had directed the choir we were members of at Good Shepherd in Friendswood. Elva, who had been an accomplished high school choir director, would eventually become our choir’s director.” - Jim Holmes

the St. James’ music program was recognized as outstanding in La Grange and in the diocese.

Elva Ulbrich enriched St. James’ with her talent during her lifetime, and the donation of her sheet music to the church would bene t choirs for many years to come. Her collection of more than 500 anthems, with enough copies of each for thirty singers, lls 82 linear feet of shelves. Present and future directors will also have her extensive planning notebooks, one for each year of the liturgical cycle, to use as reference. e collection is an irreplaceable resource.

In 2010, a er over 50 years in music ministries, Don Kirby and his wife, Mary, moved to Muldoon, Texas, to care for a family member. He was there, only a few miles away, just as St. James’ needed him, and he became director in 2014. ough the choir had lost very few members a er Elva’s death, their spirits were low. Don’s talent and faith restored their commitment and vision, and his and Mary’s joy in the church’s music enriches the present and gives hope for the future of St. James’ music.

In early 2020 a virus pandemic temporarily reduced the numbers singing each Sunday, but St. James’ and the music program carried on. With the help of the extremely accomplished organist Mary Ann Hat eld who had joined the music sta in 2019, music continued for the virtual worshipers. e music providers of St. James’ had been through di cult days and years before this pandemic, and they would rise again and in the words of the psalmist, be free to “praise the Lord in the congregation and upon the harp … give thanks.”

-Diana Kuninger

Elva Ulbrich

Joyful Voices Choir

Choir Director Don Kirby

The Instruments

e organ purchased with fundraising e orts in 1965 for St. James’ was a small tracker, manual, three-rank organ. It was built by Charles McManus of Kansas City, Kansas and had three voices: an eight-foot Rohr ote, a four-foot Gemshorn, and a two-foot Prinzipal. is organ served well for 40 years, until the congregation grew, the choir more than doubled in size, and a new choirmaster wanted to elevate the level of music.

It so happened that a St. James’ family, Stewart and Anne Chuber, were interested in making a signi cant donation to the church and, as Anne was a serious musician, giving the church a new organ was the perfect gi .

A committee researched the next steps and a er considering the resources available, they recommended to the Vestry the best choice would be a digital organ built by a company in the Netherlands, Johannus. e model would resemble a pipe organ but would be fully digital. is would preserve the traditional appearance of a pipe organ but would deliver a very signi cant increase in versatility. e St. James’ sanctuary had no space for a large pipe organ, and small-case pipe organs did not have the versatility of this digital organ. Even a small pipe organ would be signi cantly outside the available budget and donor amount.

e details of this organ’s purchase were completed with the Johannus representative in Texas, and the organ was ordered. A small group of church members, including the Chubers, Choir Director Ted Engel, and church organists Jim and Julie Holmes, traveled to Ede, Netherlands to select organ stops and voices and the cabinet style and nish. is group spent several days listening to many samples before selecting the various voices for this instrument. One voice of particular interest was the Bach Trumpet. e organists hoped to nd a stop that sounded as close as possible to

“We eventually decided on purchasing a Johannus Monarke digital organ. Our organ is fully digital, and the pipes of our instrument are not real pipes.

e actual sounds are digitally recorded from pipe organs all over the world.” - Jim Holmes

“Providentially, Stewart Chuber suddenly hit two or three great oil wells in a row a er several dry holes. He told me he and Anne would like to buy the new organ for the church and said his rst royalty check of $50,000 would underwrite their gi of the new organ. We had hoped to nd a buyer for the old instrument, but no buyers came forward. e church gave the old organ to the Chubers who sent it to Mike Quimby, an organ builder in the St. Louis area who was looking for a small McManus organ for a local church.” -

Jim Holmes

“ e Johannus representative, Rick Bocock, asked us, ‘Do you really want a real pipe organ–and consider the cost and maintenance of that option–or an organ that looks like a pipe organ?’ It was in this latter direction we were to go.” - Jim

Holmes

a real trumpet since they played many weddings where the bride wanted a trumpet ourish just as the church doors were opened for her appearance. By coincidence, Johannus had been experimenting with what they called “orchestral sound” stops, and the trumpet was the rst on their list. It was created by putting a trumpet player in their sound booth and recording his playing notes on the scale. From those recordings, they produced an organ stop. It was brand new, and only existed on their demonstration organ. St. James’ group knew it was the sound they wanted; the Johannus executives agreed, and the St. James’ instrument became the rst organ anywhere in the world with that feature. It has been a spectacular addition to this organ’s sound, much loved by organists, choir members, and the congregation alike.

Johannus’s approach to voice production is to use actual recordings of pipes in churches and cathedrals around the world. ese voices are not synthesized; a note played on the St. James’ organ is a high-de nition recording of that note as played on a particular organ somewhere in the world. While the exact locations of the voice samplings are proprietary, the St. James’ group was told that most of those selected were from an organ in a church in the Black Forest of Germany. e group found these voices to be bright and cheerful with much sparkle, sounds that would appeal to their congregation. To help with controlling the purchase budget, several of the church members, talented in woodworking, built the antiphonal unit, the case containing four speakers that hangs on the back wall of the church above the front entrance door. e church’s choir director, Ted Engel, was also an architect; he designed the antiphonal unit and worked with the Johannus cabinet department designing the organ console, which was sized to t the space. e pipes on the organ console and the antiphonal unit are real pipes but do not speak; they preserve the look of a traditional pipe organ.

-Diana Kuninger, Jim Holmes

ST. JAMES’ PRESCHOOL

In 1998, a plan was introduced to begin a preschool as a mission of the St. James’ Episcopal Church. Members Ted and Catherine Engel, the only family to have a toddler, began a mothers-day-out program that would grow with church involvement. Junior Warden Jim Holmes, Sam Kuninger, and the St. James’ Men’s Club renovated the 1980s storage building behind the church thereby bringing it upto-code and suitable for a preschool to open in 2000. Catherine painted a sky on the classroom ceiling. A period of growth followed so the sta and school board sought to raise funds. e teacher, Lana Swearingen, had an excellent recipe for spaghetti. Jim Holmes and she hosted spaghetti suppers and sold to-go plates for $5.00. Ine cient electrical outlets made it necessary to plug in the large roasters of food all over the church grounds, including the sanctuary! Sta and volunteers would don plastic raincoats to stir pots and serve the meals. e preschool soon became established. Edna Phillips’ daughter created a foundation in honor of her mother. e Phillips’ estate made a generous donation via the foundation to the preschool to fund growth and bricks-and-mortar expansion.

Lana, director for many years, continued traditions that lasted decades. e daily worship adhered to the Episcopal traditions and liturgy. e children were honored with a preschool graduation in the sanctuary, in which they would process to Jim Holmes’s playing “Pomp and Circumstance.” Jim has played the piano for 13 annual graduations, and only missed one, which was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. A “Prayer for St. James’ Preschool,” written by Catherine has been in the St. James’ parent handbook for the last 21 years. It is the prayer that opens each new school year.

Enrollment grew (once again) and began to strain the boundaries of the classroom; children were added to the waiting list as soon as there was a bun in the oven. Laurie started a new fundraising tradition called Preschool Picassos, in which

“Our mothers-day-out program evolved into our present-day preschool. I have been wholeheartedly supportive of the preschool since its inception, and I am convinced the church provides a special opportunity for children. Each day the kids attend a short service in the sanctuary outside their classrooms as part of their full day. I think it means a lot to them.” -

Pinky Wilson

preschoolers’ original art made in class was sold along with donated items at an auction and dinner. Church member musicians provided live music, and the auctioneer was none other than Lee Fritsch.

In an inches-thick le named Dreams for the Preschool, there is a 2004 agenda from a church and school board meeting that closely resembles agendas from 2019. As the 2019 planning committee met to discuss the need for more space for church and school, the echoes of two decades of school supporters culminated in a vision of new construction on Colorado Street. e Edna Phillips Foundation funds and a substantial donation by Joe and Tanya Jameson owed into the Capital Campaign. Proceeds saved from spaghetti suppers and Preschool Picassos helped to pay o a new building. O cials broke ground in the spring of 2020, during a pandemic, and new hope sprung forth for the St. James’ Preschool.

Lee Fritsch and Laurie Krupala at Preschool Picassos

“ y p ilosop y e ind t e pres ool is t e sa e p ilosop y e ind t e ur t at t e ildren w o o e t roug our doors now t is is a safe pla e to all o e and t at t ey are eloved of od.

“ ver t e years ur e ers attending t e pres ool ave in luded t e olt girls, t e radley ildren, t e ay ildren, and yla and our two ildren.” - r. Eric Hungerford

Changes came to St. James’ in 2014, as Lana retired, Fr. Daryl Hay moved away, and Fr. Eric Hungerford was chosen as the new St. James’ rector. Church member Laurie Krupala became director in the fall. e original mission and philosophy of the preschool aligned so well under Fr. Eric and Laurie’s leadership that plans for expansion providentially fell into place. e 2015 preschool board established a scholarship fund, driven by church members Pinky Wilson and Dianna Berg; the fund thrived under Laurie’s vision. e fund was named Emily’s Angel Scholarship Fund in memory of former St. James’ graduate, the late Emily Fritsch. Emily’s parents, Lee and Phyllis Fritsch, continued to be involved with the preschool. Scholarships opened doors for many families in the community, and the preschool expanded to a full-day program in 2016.

During construction, the First Presbyterian Church welcomed the preschool and church o ces of St. James’. e school sta began the new year with dogged determination, as was their custom. Earlier, the scholarship fund and Laurie’s willingness to say yes introduced the rst inclusive classroom in 2019, enrolling a student with mobility delays. For the rst time ever, this young lady could attend school outside of her home. Sadly, COVID-19 restrictions halted the school year, and ultimately Jim Holmes’s chance to play “Pomp and Circumstance” for the 14th time.

On the 20th anniversary of St. James’ Preschool, Laurie led her sta to the construction site on Colorado Street to view its progress. Perhaps when Catherine painted a sky on the ceiling of the rst classroom that day 20 years before, she envisioned the program’s eventual growth or mused that the sky would be the limit. Laurie believes heaven had smiled that distant day upon St. James’ and set in motion 20 years of people and plans that were meant to follow through. As light shone down between the beams, Laurie inscribed upon them Catherine’s ever-relevant prayer for the little school’s purpose. Because 20 years from now, if these walls can talk, they probably will.

-Laurie Krupala, Georgina Hudspeth

“Second Chance was a blessed endeavor. e original location was an old car dealership. We rented the showroom; the mechanics continued to work in the bays in the back of the building. It had just gotten o the ground when we received a telephone call. e gentleman said, ‘I can’t think about you people paying rent. So, I bought that building for you!’ Turns out, he did not even attend any of the participating churches. I’d say God was truly at work. We had a city-wide garage sale to raise the money to remodel the front of the building to get it ready for our customers. Second Chance was, and is, so needed in the community. A er we took possession of the building, the mechanics in the back moved their business out. With the extra space, there was room to sell furniture. I truly think there is a hidden shopkeeper in all of us.”

– e Rt. Rev. Dena Harrison

SECOND CHANCE AND AMEN: SERVING THOSE IN NEED

Everybody knows Second Chance Emporium. One would be hard-pressed to nd anybody in Fayette County who hasn’t shopped at the nonpro t resale shop at some time over the past quarter century. But there is one thing most people have forgotten: e new (in 2020), 20,000 square foot building, the millions of dollars given to local nonpro ts, the great deals people nd for everything from rocking chairs to new school clothes all sprang from an idea hatched at St. James’. Where did Second Chance begin?

Bishop Dena Harrison traces its origins to the 1940s when the diocese considered closing St. James’ and selling o the building in parts. Women at the church responded by opening a resale shop on the Square with all the proceeds going to the maintenance of the church.

to the church’s roots: collecting used clothing and selling it for pennies-on-the-dollar. A resale shop would certainly be a way to get decent clothing to people without a lot of income—and any money le over would be donated to local social service agencies. Everybody would win.

e rst shop opened in an A-frame structure on a road up to the Blu . But the store had been open for just a few months when the building was sold, and the nascent operation had to nd a new place to operate. Bob Field had helped create the rst store, so he then found its next home. He secured the nancing and made a deal to buy a building on West Travis Street in La Grange, just before the Colorado River bridge. To open the store, however, Second Chance needed two things: some operating money and a lot of help. Gaye Evans, Suzy Romberg (a stalwart at First Presbyterian), and Field organized a city-wide “garage sale” at the

Amen Mural by Suzanne Morriss-Batchelder

In a way, not much has changed in the last quarter-century at Second Chance. e same churches still jointly manage and operate the shop. ( e churches are St. James’; the First Presbyterian Church of La Grange; First United Methodist; Mt. Calvary Lutheran; St. Paul Evangelical Lutheran; Second Baptist, now Crosspoint Community Church; Sacred Heart Catholic Church; and Shared Lutheran Ministries, consisting of St. John Lutheran in Ellinger, St. Paul Lutheran in Fayetteville, and St. John’s Lutheran in Warrenton.)

Fayette County residents still donate their used clothes, furniture, books, and kitchen appliances. Families looking to clothe kids for school, out t a kitchen, or nd a toy for an active youngster can still discover the best deals in town. And Second Chance still gives away all pro ts to local social service groups and towards scholarships—a total of over $3 million by the beginning of 2021.

At the same time, everything has changed at Second Chance. We have Hurricane Harvey to thank for that.

Harvey dumped nearly 30 inches of rain on the county in August 2017 and the Colorado River rose 50 feet. Hundreds of homes and businesses were ooded. Second Chance didn’t stand a chance. e two buildings lled nearly to the ceiling with rain and river water, leaving a tangled, muddy mess there on Travis Street.

e churches responded to Harvey in the Fayette County way, the same way that saved the resale shop when it had to move from the Blu nearly 20 years earlier. ey cooperated. In a meeting at the St. James’ parish hall, while the ood waters were still soaking the town, the town’s churches agreed to turn Second Chance into a disaster relief center. AMEN, the church-organized food pantry, donated temporary use of its building. Volunteers cleaned and stocked shelves salvaged from the ooded building. And for the next several months, the new Second Chance served as a recovery center. Whoever asked for help got it.

La Grange gradually recovered, and

Second Chance gradually resumed its mission. By the end of October 2017, sales began again. And Second Chance again sent money to its long list of nonpro t social service groups. But the shop couldn’t stay in the blue warehouse at the end of South Reynolds Street in La Grange forever. AMEN needed its building. And Second Chance needed more space.

St. James’s the Rev. Eric Hungerford was chairman of the Second Chance board when it bought land from the City of La Grange in 2018. e land, adjacent to the AMEN building, had been the site of the longabandoned county “poor farm.” Architect Jason Merritt drew up plans for a new, 20,000 square foot building, and in 2019 construction crews broke ground. e town and the eight churches celebrated its completion in December, and the rst sale in what was the fourth Second Chance building took place in January 2020.

ings were “normal” again. Donations owed in the back door. And people lined up every Friday and Saturday mornings in front of the new Second Chance to get good deals on just about everything. Second Chance resumed sending monthly grants to AMEN for its food pantry; Bluebonnet Trails Community Services; Fayette County Habitat for Humanity; Combined Community Action; Tejas Medical Clinic; and to St. Mark’s Hospital to help pay for indigent medical care. e virtuous circle that bene ted Fayette County since 1995 was working again.

ings never stay the same, of course. e COVID-19 pandemic interrupted sales in early 2020. But like the move from the Blu and the waters from Hurricane Harvey, this will pass, too. What remains is the cooperation of hard-working and giving churches—and an idea born long ago at St. James’ Episcopal Church.

-Lil Landry, Bill Bishop

Poor Farm

“ n , all t e ur windows were restored and repainted for t e rst ti e sin e t e date of t eir installation. reat are was given to use t e original olors . ong ago a tornado ad o pro ised t e steeple ross and it ad never een restored. o, we repla ed t e ross on top of t e ell tower . All re uilding was funded y enture in ission, an in entive fund reated y t e presiding is op in ew or , o n Allen. is fund was reated to provide funds to pis opal ur es for restoration, repair, and growt . is op Allen as ed livia de avilland to e t e spo esperson for enture in ission. e ade t e presentation of t e endow ent funds w en t e dio ese et in alveston, at w i ti e said, e did a great o .”

-The Rev. avid uckett

Many nonprofit organizations set up endowment funds. These are accounts whose moneys are invested in various instruments and grow over time. The organization can draw down three to five percent of the total of the fund annually for operating expenses, typically. This way the endowment becomes a permanent source of funding for the organization. A common source for the contributions to these endowments would be founders or other supporters’ leaving current or legacy gi s as part of their estate planning.

The St. James’ Endowment und was created in 1985 by a group of parishioners who wanted to help ensure the growth and stability of the church. rom those humble beginnings, the endowment has now 2021 grown to well over 1,000,000 in value, both from additional contributions and earnings on the invested funds. The amount of the endowment is extraordinary for a parish the size of St. James’.

The endowment is managed by a committee nominated by the rector and elected by the estry. The committee consists of four members, each serving a four-year term, with one member’s term expiring each year. In addition, the parish rector, senior warden, and treasurer also serve on the committee.

The policy of the endowment is to make contributions to St. James’ when needed by the parish. The total value of the fund has grown to its present, ample amount even a er contributing thousands of dollars to the parish.

The Endowment und is a ualified 501 c 3 organization, so donations are tax deductible. Contributions to the endowment may be made in cash or other assets, such as securities or land, by pledges payable over several years, or by deferred giving, by naming the Endowment as a beneficiary in one’s will.

“ a e to t. a es years ago. e ur was not as sta le as it is today . e ad ot nan ial and attendan e struggles.”

- Jim Holmes

-Joe Bailey, John euner

Epilogue

EPILOGUE: RECOLLECTIONS OF GROWING UP IN ST. JAMES’

by long-time parishioner Carl Luckenbach

My journey at St. James’ began on July 15, 1945, when I was baptized at there by Bishop Quin. When I was three to ve, I was taught Sunday School in the sacristy. e teacher was Mary Patrick’s daughter. I do not remember her name. Also, during this time, the vicar, the Rev. Edmunds, died. I remember being in a room with him in his co n.

When I was ve to seven, my duty was to pump the organ. e organ could be powered by foot pedals, or by a handle on the side of the organ. e organist was Miss Faison, who was quite elderly. She would quickly tire of using the foot pedals, so young boys would move the handle back and forth. Bill Williams, three years older than I was, did this also. Bill Patrick had done this previously, but by this time he had become the main acolyte. Our long-time junior warden, Dr. E.T. Williams, devised a way to power the organ with a vacuum cleaner. e vacuum cleaner was housed in a little doghouse-looking structure outside the nave, near the organ.

When I was eight, we formed a boys’ choir, directed by Mrs. Williams. ere were three other boys my age during this time. is lasted about a year until Mrs. Williams became disenchanted with Dr. Williams and moved to Houston.

In those days, the nave was heated by two large gas space heaters. So that the church would be warm enough on Sunday mornings, someone would light the stoves on Saturday night. Later, a forcedair gas heater was installed near the back of the nave. It was quite noisy and greatly distracted from worship. During warm weather, there were removable wood panels on the sides of the nave that could be removed for ventilation. ere was a large noisy fan in the back of the nave. In those days, Vacation Bible School was done at Miss Kaulbach’s residence, now owned by Pinky Wilson. It was a large house, with screened porches. I recall doing “sword drills” in the front yard, racing to nd Bible verses.

When I was in the fourth grade, I began serving as an acolyte. I continued to do this until I went o to college in 1963. e acolytes wore black vestments, but some red ones were also made for us. ere was a seamstress across the side street who sewed them. e Rev. Arthur Lockhart was the vicar and continued in that role for two or three years. We moved forward during that time, building the parish hall in 1955. e contractor was Arthur Pohl. e vicar’s wife was Sally Lockhart. She was very nice but may have had some mental/ emotional issues. ere was a meeting during which she spoke up about proposing to build the parish hall. Mr. C.C. Jopling, an attorney, publicly admonished her for this, and she became quite upset. Later, Mr. Jopling

became a major contributor toward building the parish hall. It may have been around this time that we became a parish.

I, along with Pug Hart and another boy, possibly Mike Looby, were con rmed on July 15, 1956, by Bishop Percy Goddard, of Tyler.

From about 1957 to 59, our rector was the Rev. Ellsworth Stewart. He had been an electrical contractor in Houston prior to getting his call and becoming a priest. He had a son and two daughters whom I enjoyed being around. During this time, we built a rectory, and they were the rst family to occupy it. However, it became obvious that our sacramental wine was needing replacement too o en, and it was discovered that the Rev. Stewart was drinking it.

From the time I was a sophomore in high school until I le for college, we were clustered with rst Bastrop and then Columbus. Money was scarce, and we would only light selected candles. As they burned down, the candles would be rotated. It required a pretty festive occasion to light all the candles. e ladies ran a thri shop, which generated money for capital items such as the installation of air conditioning and the new pipe organ. e organ was purchased and installed for $5,000, by a man from Kansas.

During this time, I was the lay reader on the Sundays when the priest did not come from Bastrop or Columbus. e Diocese of Texas licensed me as a lay reader when I was 16. On Saturdays, I would come to St. James’ and mow the grass. On Sundays, I would come early enough to unlock, turn on the lights, and ring the bell. I would light the candles, read Morning Prayer and the sermon that was provided weekly by the Diocese of Texas.

A er I le for college, whenever I was home for a holiday, I would serve as an usher. While I was in college at Texas A&M, I occasionally served as a lay reader at St. omas in College Station on Wednesday nights, since I was still licensed as a lay reader.

roughout this entire period, and beyond, my mother, Vada Pearl Luckenbach, served as the St. James’ treasurer. e only current member who was around during my time was Val Pechal, who was my third-grade teacher.

In my adult life, my membership has moved to St. Luke’s-on-the-Lake, Austin; St. Francis, San Antonio; the Church of the Holy Trinity, Midland; St. Paul’s-on-the-Plains, Lubbock; St. Dunstan’s, Houston; and now, St. Barnabas, Fredericksburg. I have served on vestries in two churches, as stewardship chair in two churches: I’ve also been a treasurer, junior warden, senior warden, and choir member in various churches. My son, David, is now the rector of Christ Episcopal Church, Tyler. My other two children served as acolytes during their developing years.

ey are now Baptists.

e third decade of the 21st century has begun, and we have all observed that we live in an era of increasing secularization, fragmentation, and polarization. e culture at large has had an increasingly di cult time remembering to live up to the Christian value of loving neighbor as self. e Episcopal Church in the Diocese of Texas has managed to persevere through these challenges with a bold unity—staying united as a diocese in the midst of great challenges. St. James’, La Grange has been an un agging example of this same Christian unity which lives in the spirit of St. Paul’s epistle to the Galatians, “ ere is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus,” a spirit encapsulated in the beautiful Hymn 529 in the Hymnal 1982: “In Christ there is no East or West, in him no South or North, but one great fellowship of love throughout the whole wide earth.” St. James’ is made up of people from all walks of life, from di ering perspectives and backgrounds, from all over Texas, the United States, and the World.

Each person who walks through the doors of this church is meant to be here. Each ministry from the Holy Smokers to the St. James’ Preschool, to the ECW, to the volunteers at AMEN and Second Chance are meant to bear Christ’s love into a world badly in need of it, to enrich the lives of the people of this community, and to proclaim through action, that God’s Love is present in the midst of the people of La Grange.

As we move forward into the mid-morning of the 21st century, my hope for the people of St. James’ is that we would live into this Spirit of Christian Unity and Radical Hospitality, in which all people who seek an encounter with God might nd and be found by God here at St. James’ and that the people of St. James’ would continue to go forth from here each week to share the love of Christ with those who are badly in need of a Good Word. My prayer for the people of St. James’ would be that her people never forget the lesson of 1 Corinthians 12: 14-21:

Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot were to say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear were to say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many members, yet one body. e eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” (1 Corinthians 12: 14-21)

Each one of us was uniquely made in the Image of God, each one of us has a story to tell, each one of our stories is vital to the telling of the Story of St. James’. Let us celebrate our stories. Let us celebrate the St. James’ story. A er all, these are all a part of God’s Great Story.

- e Rev. Eric P. Hungerford, Rector

St. James’ Episcopal Church

e Diocese of Texas

La Grange

Fayette County Texas USA

A Historical Timeline

EPISCOPAL CLERGY SERVING LA GRANGE

1848-49 Henry Niles Pierce (Independence)

1853 Lindsey Powell Rucker (Washington)

1854 Elisha H. Downing (Brenham)

1855-57 Hannibal N. Pratt (Columbus)

1858 Lucius H. Jones (Seguin)

1861 John M. Goshorn (Columbus)

1862 Henry B. Monges (Seguin)

1866-67 Joseph Wilkins Tays (Richmond)

1868-69 John Rosenberg, Deacon

1872-75 John W. Phillips (Austin)

1876-81 William G.W. Smith (Bastrop)

1881-91 W.G.W. Smith, Rector

1891-95 A. Basil Perry (Bastrop)

1895-96 Percy W. Jones (Bastrop)

1896-1900 John Sloan (Bastrop)

1901-06 VACANT

1907-08 William Hart (Eagle Lake)

1908-17 VACANT

1917-19 Joseph Cross Gray, Deacon

1919-25 VACANT

Parish remitted to mission status: 1921

1925-27 F.M. Johnson (Eagle Lake)

1929-38 Clarence H. Lake (Bastrop)

1939-40 John P. Phillips (Bastrop)

1941-43 Leo S. Cook (Bastrop)

1943-44 Richard A. Park (Bastrop)

1946-47 L.I. Insley (Bastrop)

1948-50 William Meade Brown (Taylor)

1951-52 Arthur G. Edmonds, Deacon

1952-56 Arthur J. Lockhart, Vicar

1957-59 Ellsworth R. Stewart, Vicar

1959-60 Calvin Sachers (Columbus)

1960-61 James H. Watt (Bastrop)

1961-62 Earl C. Pyle (Columbus)

1963-68 James H. Watt (Columbus)

1968-75 Edward M. Hartwell (Austin)

1975-80 Frank E. Fuller, Rector

Parish status: 1979

1980-85 David Puckett, Rector

1985-88 Bryan Porter, Rector

1989 John Christopher Hines, Rector

1990-92 Karl M. Choate, Rector

1992-97 Dena A. Harrison, Rector

1997-2000 Anne Hoey, Rector

2001-05 Robert Viggiano, Rector

2005-13 Daryl T. Hay, Rector

2014-21 Eric P. Hungerford, Rector

2022

R Christopher Heying, Rector

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

e visionary at the heart of this St. James’ narrative—the originator of the idea, the inspiration behind its execution—was the Rev. Eric Hungerford who, in his sixth year of his tenure at St. James’, asked if I would oversee the project. I was deeply honored to be asked. I thank him for his trust, guidance, and insight.

In many ways the entire congregation of St. James’, past and present, deserves to be thanked for their input and encouragement in the preparation of this book. And there are no doubt others who have escaped this editor’s attention who were of service to the various writers and photo personnel. We harbor the greatest appreciation for some speci c persons and organizations.

Cover Illustration: Jason Merritt and Suzanne Morriss-Batchelder

Title: e great Irish singer/songwriter and friend, Paul Brady whose song “ e Road to the Promised Land” includes a line very close to the title of this work.

Photography: Bill Bishop, Chuck Gibson, Julie Ardery

Archival Photographs: Fayette Heritage Museum & Archives, the sta and especially their director, Rox Ann Johnson; the archival storage bins and les of St. James’, La Grange, Texas

Concept and Approach: Kathi Austin

Art Direction, Graphics, and Illustrations: Suzanne Morriss-Batchelder

Production and Printing: Regina Keilers, Fayette County Record

Grant Funding: the 2020 Vestry of St. James’ Episcopal Church, La Grange

Writers and Interviewees: e Rev. Eric Hungerford, Barbara Cauble, Julie Ardery, Ken Berg, Carol Helms, Chuck Gibson, Cathy Sterman, Diana Kuninger, Jim Holmes, Laurie Krupala, Georgina Hudspeth, Lil Landry, Bill Bishop, Joe Bailey, John Zeuner, Carl Luckenbach, Bob and Helen Hays, the Rt. Rev. Dena Harrison, the Rev. David Puckett, Mary Kahanek, Pinky Wilson, Stewart Chuber, Jim Holmes, and the Rev. Daryl Hay.

Discussion Participants: All of the above plus Gary McKee, Marie W. Watts, and Andy Boots.

-Jim Austin

James W. Austin, D.Phil. received his doctorate from Oxford University, England, in 1980. While at Oxford, he lectured at the undergraduate level and published numerous articles in international journals. He served as the CEO of the Houston International Festival, a major arts celebration, from 1986-2011.

e Rev. Eric Hungerford graduated with a B.A. in History and Religious Studies, cum laude, in 2006 from Austin College. He received his MDiv from e Seminary of the Southwest in 2010 and was installed Rector of St. James’ of La Grange in 2014.

Suzanne Morriss-Batchelder holds a B.A. from the University of Arkansas and a B. Arch. From the University of Houston. roughout a long career in architecture and the arts, she has provided illustrations and graphic assistance to her employers, her clients and her church.