Corpus Christi History by Murphy Givens

That old-time religion

Caller-Times File Photo

The Church of the Good Shepherd was built in 1873 at Taylor and Chaparral.

When Zachary Taylor's army was camped in the small outpost of Corpus Christi, preparing for war with Mexico, a Catholic priest, the Rev. Ubald Estany, arrived to spread the gospel.
   One of Taylor's officers wrote in his diary that Estany was "a native of old Spain who . . . has become a traveling savior of souls. He resides on the San Antonio River, and makes periodical visits to villages in a circumference of 400 miles. He gave us an excellent sermon in Spanish and English."
   This was in 1845. After Estany came a Methodist minister, the Rev. John Hayne (sometimes spelled Haynie), who arrived in February, 1846, a month before the army left for the Rio Grande. Hayne was escorted by Texas Rangers. They crossed the reef road on horseback. Hayne didn't have a place to sleep, so he bedded down on bags of shelled corn and pinto beans. He preached in the Union Theater before a congregation of Taylor's officers, many of whom would become famous generals in the Civil War.
   In 1848, the Rev. James Giraudon celebrated mass in the home of Cornelius Cahill. Priests and preachers made periodic visits, but it was not until 1853, a year after Corpus Christi became a city, that it gained its first house of worship.
   Methodists built first church
   The first church was the First Methodist Church, made of clay gouged out of the bluff and mixed with crushed shells. It was at the corner of Mann and Mesquite. The church was organized by Rev. Henderson Lafferty; charter members included 18 whites and six blacks.
   The church had space for 200 worshippers. They sat on rough benches with no back rests and men sat on one side of the church and women on the other. Services sometimes lasted all day and people brought basket lunches and ate on the church grounds.

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The First Presbyterian Church, at North Broadway and Mestina, was built in 1867; construction was interrupted by a yellow fever outbreak.

   The following year, the Rev. Bernard O'Reilly built the first Catholic church.The original St. Patrick's was on Tancahua, between Antelope and Leopard. It was also built of shellcrete and was described as a crude building, 40 feet by 40 feet. The only adornment was a painting of the Last Supper over the altar. (The building was not actually completed until 1857.)
   More than a decade later, after the Nuecestown raid by bandits, a wounded bandit, trussed up in an ox cart, was brought to Corpus Christi, and an angry mob was looking for a place to hang the man. They were trying to fix a rope to the top of St. Patrick's when a Catholic rancher, Martin Culver, made them find another location for the lynching.
   After the Catholics and Methodists, the next major religious presence in Corpus Christi was made by the Episcopalians. They organized in 1860 and held services in the old Market Hall.
   The Presbyterians in 1859 tried to establish a church, but there was a falling out among prospective members who included Union loyalists, led by Capt John Dix, and ardent secessionists. It would be another eight years, after the war, before the Presbyterians organized.
   Members of the new Presby-terian Church were awaiting the building of their new church on land donated by Richard King. The lumber was stacked on the bluff site when yellow fever hit in 1867. Hundreds died and the dressed lumber to build the church was used to make coffins. The fever claimed the pastor, Rev. William Mitchell, and many church members, including Dr. E.T. Merriman.
   The fever also claimed one of the best-loved priests in the city's history, Rev. John Gonnard, who came here during the Civil War. After the fever hit, Gonnard worked tirelessly caring for the sick until he collapsed himself. When he died, wrote Mary Sutherland, he was mourned by every man, woman and child in Corpus Christi, of every faith.
   That summer, the new Episcopal pastor, Rev. A.F. Dobb, preached in the Methodist Church, Helen Chapman noted in her diary. The Episcopalians, who organized in 1860, had been holding services here and there. They finally got their church in 1873. The Church of the Good Shepherd, at Chaparral and Taylor, was a landmark. Its lofty steeple could be seen far out in the bay. The Episcopalians had their church, but it was a struggle just to pay the pastor.

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The second St. Patrick’s Church, at Tancahua and Antelope, was dedicated in 1882; it became a cathedral in 1912.

   Rev. William Brittain, who became pastor in 1871, resigned in 1872. In his letter of resignation, he reminded the Vestry that they owed him "44 and 37/100 coin dollars" in back wages. He wanted payment in silver or gold coin, not paper dollars.
   In 1872, the Methodists built a frame building with a tall bell tower, which was used as a school during the week and a meeting house on Sunday, to replace the old adobe church built in 1853; it was used as a parsonage. A few years later, in 1879, the Methodists lost their parson when the Rev. C.M. Rogers married wealthy ranch widow Martha Rabb and they moved to Austin.
   New St. Patricks built in 1882
   Dominic Manucy was installed as the new bishop at Brownsville in 1874. But he got off to a bad start with the people there and decided to move the Vicariate to Corpus Christi. The bishop's first priority was to build a new church. The old church built in 1854 was in sad shape. The new St. Patrick's, on the same block but behind the old church, was built and designed by Charles Carroll, father of Mary Carroll, who would become school superintendent in Corpus Christi.
   Two old adobe (or shellcrete) churches - the First Methodist church on Mann and old St. Patrick's on Tancahua - were built by the parishioners' own sweat and labor. Together, they became the foundation on which religious faith in Corpus Christi was built.
   This is the first of two parts. Part two will appear in this space next Wednesday.
  
   Murphy Givens can be reached by phone at 886-4315 or by e-mail at givensm@caller.com.
  
  

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