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High atop a hill on a beautiful rise overlooking eastern Archer County, St. Mary Catholic Church in Windthorst stands like a beacon to faithful for miles around. The first pioneers in the area planned it that way in the summer of 1891.
Those first settlers carried a wooden cross to the place where St. Mary Catholic Church stands today and staked it firmly in the ground. On the cross, they spelled out the name of their town, honoring the late Baron Ludwig Windthorst, who had been an influential Catholic statesman in Germany. Now settlers from all around would have a landmark as they headed for the new town.
It is important to note that those early pioneers didn't post the town's name simply on a board, but to a cross. To them, the town and its location on God's green earth were one and the same. Their goal was simple: to build a Catholic community and church in a well-organized community.
With support from Diocese of Dallas Bishop Thomas F. Brennan, founders went to work promoting the 75,000-acre settlement to German Catholics eager to carve out a future on the land and raise their children in a Catholic environment. Derr Clark and Duncan C. Plumb, owners of the company involved in the land purchases for the new settlement, promised to fund a church, rectory and school for the community. They also promised to donate 20 acres of land for the new church.
On January 1, 1892, Father Joseph Reisdorff celebrated the first Mass in Windthorst with about ten faithful in the attic of an unfinished home. Father Reisdorff would gain much experience about growing the faith in Texas from the time he spent in Windthorst. He would later help start several towns and Catholic churches in and around Texas, including Rhineland two years later.
In addition to a supportive priest and bishop, the faithful found Clark and Plumb to be true to their word. The men donated the 20 acres they had promised and got work started on a new house of God. On February 2, 1893, a 36 by 72 foot, two-story building was constructed containing worship and classroom space.
Fire destroyed the church building in 1904 and a new one took its place immediately that same year.
A new school was dedicated in 1919, which by then was run by the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word.
Fire destroyed the second church building in 1924, and this time a new one was built by the following year. The beautiful red Romanesque church included a distinctive clock steeple and vibrant stained glass windows.
No story about St. Mary in Windthorst would be complete without including the history of the grotto built near the front of the church. Named "Our Lady of Perpetual Help," the grotto project was started in 1942, shortly after the United States entered World War II. Sixty-four parishioners of St. Mary in Windthorst served their country to every theater - air, land and sea.
During the war, the servicemen sent their pay home to fund the $4,000 grotto project. The grotto is built of native stone, as well as granite from the Wichita Mountains. It contains a five-foot statue of the Virgin Mary imported from Italy.
Although there were many near-death experiences among the 64 men who went off to war, they have gone on record saying they always felt protected because of their connection to the grotto project and their devotion to Mary. She truly proved to be their Lady of Perpetual Help.
In 1967, the faithful celebrated the 75th anniversary of their parish with a two-day festival including a two-mile parade with floats, animals, farm machinery and the Sheppard Air Force Base Band.
The Texas Historical Commission honored St. Mary Catholic Church in Windthorst with a historical plaque in 1974, in recognition of its central importance to the formation of Windthorst.
On January 1, 2017, residents and parishioners filled St. Mary for a significant milestone. It was exactly 125 years, to the day, that the first Mass was celebrated in the attic of a Windthorst home by Father Joseph Reisdorff.
Now, 125 years later, it was being celebrated in a beautiful church, high on a hill, by Diocese of Fort Worth Bishop Michael F. Olson and Father Michael Moloney.
"We're grateful for those who have for 125 years given their lives that this parish might flourish, that their children might know the will of God, might have the sacraments, might celebrate and be one in the Eucharist," the bishop said.
Today, St. Mary in Windthorst is home to about 880 parishioners.
- From The Diocese of Fort Worth: Beyond the Frontiers of Faith by Jerry Circelli ©2019