St. Paul is proud to be the steward of the historic Evangelical Lutheran Church of St. Martin on Loop 337 in New Braunfels, Texas. Built in 1851, St. Martin is the oldest Lutheran church building in Texas. Read more about the St. Martin history below, and how you can help with its restoration and preservation.
The History
of St. Martin
Back in the days before automobiles, when people traveled by horse and buggy or on foot, a newly ordained German pastor named Theobald Kleis enrolled in a mission training school. He was subsequently selected with his friend, C.A. Sager, to embark on an ocean voyage to America, with instructions to concentrate on the spiritual needs of Lutheran immigrants in Texas. The two friends made the long Atlantic voyage together and arrived in Galveston in the winter of 1850. They parted ways, and Kleis traveled on to Neighborsville and Hortontown, where he found German immigrants who welcomed him.
The Heinemeyer family invited Kleis to stay with them, and the 24-year-old pastor made his home and parsonage in a single windowless room, 14 by 18 feet. Before 1850 drew to an end, Kleis was conducting worship services at the Guadalupe River out in the open air. One year later, in 1851, the young pastor erected a church/school building in Neighborsville for $253, where the first worship services were conducted in German. Kleis named the church St. Martin in honor of Martin Luther.
At the end of his second year in Texas, Kleis helped organize the First Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Texas. His aggressive missionary activities led him to Seguin, San Antonio, Castroville, and Quihi. He was well liked and respected everywhere he traveled. In mid-1852, Kleis asked the Synod for permission to make a trip north for health reasons and received authorization to accept funds for the synodical treasury while on his travels. After deciding to settle in Pennsylvania, Kleis sent the funds he’d collected to six communities in Texas to see churches built there, instead of sending the funds to the Synod. Kleis died in 1853 at the age of 27. He was in America only three years to do the Lord’s work.
By 1900, the Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Texas could no longer supply a resident pastor for St. Martin. For a time, the members turned to the German speaking pastors who traveled from town to town, but eventually, regular services were discontinued and the building was abandoned as a meeting house.
In 1948 the state historical marker was dedicated honoring the church as the first Lutheran church building in Texas. Despite this honor, the building remained empty. Some former St. Martin members continued to take an interest in the abandoned church and kept it from disintegrating completely. In 1957, they decided to donate the land on which the church and school building stood to the Comal County Rural School District with the stipulation that the district keep the church building in good repair as long as possible.
In 1963, Pastor Milton Frueh, pastor of St. Paul Evangelical Lutheran Church of New Braunfels, realized that the “as long as possible” stipulation with the school district was evidently at an end. After long negotiations, in April 1968, the church building was moved a short distance to the quiet setting of the congregation’s cemetery, where it remains today.
