Matagorda County Episcopal Church

Matagorda County

Christ Episcopal Church

MOTHER CHURCH OF TEXAS

This parish, the oldest Episcopal church in Texas, traces its history to 1838, the year the Rev. Caleb S. Ives was appointed missionary to the Republic of Texas. The first service was held on Christmas Day, and the congregation was formally organized on January 27, 1839. After land was donated by Albert Clinton Horton and Abner Lee Clements, the first building was erected. The first service was held in the new building on Easter Sunday 1841. Ives and his wife, Katherine, established a school, the Matagorda Academy, which was in operation until 1849. After the first church was destroyed in a hurricane in 1854, this building was erected 400 yards west of the original site. Some materials from the 1841 church were salvaged for use in the new structure, including the altar, communion rail, altar cross, and pews. Although this building has been damaged in numerous hurricanes, parts of it date to 1856. Exhibiting influences of the Italianate and Gothic revival styles of architecture, features include round-headed, paired lancet windows. Designated as a recorded Texas historic landmark, the structure received the official Texas Historical Building Medallion in 1962. (1988) Historical Marker

IVES, CALEB SMITH (1798-1849).

Caleb Smith Ives, Episcopal priest, was born on September 25, 1798, at Tinmouth, Vermont, the son of Jared and Joanna (Smith) Ives. He received a degree from Trinity College, Hartford, in 1840 and entered General Theological Seminary in New York the same year. He completed his studies there in 1833 and was appointed missionary to Alabama by the Protestant Episcopal Church. On February 6, 1834, he married Katherine Duncan Morison; they had three children. While serving as chaplain and professor of ancient languages at Mobile Institute, Ives was invited to perform duties of priest and schoolmaster in Matagorda, Texas. He arrived late in 1838, in time to celebrate the Holy Eucharist on Christmas Day, to his knowledge the first time it had been celebrated in Texas according to the Episcopal rite. He established one of the first Episcopal churches in Texas at Matagorda. In May 1839 he returned to the United States to raise money for a church building, which was completed in 1841. He held occasional services in Brazoria and organized St. John's parish at Victoria but continued to hold the pastorate at Christ Church in Matagorda, where he and his wife operated Matagorda Academy, said to be one of the best academies in Texas. Christ Church was the first Episcopal parish in Texas and the most southern and western in the whole American Episcopalian church. Ives became ill in the spring of 1849 and went to Vermont in the hope of regaining his health, but he failed to recover and died on July 27, 1849.

MATAGORDA. Texas. June 16 —This 106-year-old town, founded by Elias Wightman, Stephen F. Austin and Ira Ingram, welcomed more than 1,000 Texas Episcopalians Tuesday at a celebration commemorating the founding of the first Episcopal church in the State. Bishop Clinton S. Quin of Houston was celebrant of the Holy Communion and was in charge of the confirmation of a class of eight He was assisted by the Right Rev. E C. Seaman of Amarillo and the Rev. T. J Windham of Houston. Bishop Harry T. Moore of Dallas preached the sermon. The Rev. Paul Engle. rector of the church eleven years, was the host pastor and welcomed Delegations from various parts of Texas. A Special service honored the history of Bishop Leonidis K. Polk. The first Anglican prelate ever to visit Texas. He came to Matagorda in 1839 The historic mother church of the communion at which the services were held was established by the Rev Caleb S. Ives, who arrived Matagorda in 1838. (Dallas Morning News June 17, 1936)