High Hill, Texas
Early settlers in the area were German and Austrian-Moravian and included the Heinrich, Kleinemann, Seydler, Ebeling, Hillje, Siems, Steurcke, and Nordhausen families.
Henry Ebeling opened a store in Oldenburg in 1847, and John F. Hillje was operating a cotton gin and gristmill in the community by 1856.
According to some sources, residents of High Hill refused to allow the Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio Railway to build through their community in 1874, fearing that the railroad would destroy the tranquility and culture of the town, but with the building of the line to nearby Schulenburg, many of High Hill's residents moved there.
When the present-day church was built, these beautiful original stained-glass windows were moved to the new and larger building, which was constructed in 1906 and painted in 1912.
Fresh from his architecture studies in Germany, the young Dielmann designed a classic gothic revival structure for the small German settlement of High Hill.
In the late 1800s and into the 1900s, the Catholic hierarchy attempted to influence communities in Texas to build in the more practical "Spanish" or "Mission" style of architecture.
From an aesthetic standpoint, the exterior of High Hill shows Dielmann's early mastery of gothic proportions and rhythms.
He was hired to design a church for the Catholic community in the frontier town of Fredericksburg in the Texas Hill Country.
Old timers in the parish remember their parents saying that Stockert and Kern first painted their images on canvas and then glued them to the wood walls.
[6] In 1901, a group of German-Catholic immigrants to Texas who were united by faith, by language, by common concern for their fellow man and by their desire to protect their families, founded their own fraternal benefit society which is now known as Catholic Life.
It was the first fraternal in Texas to admit both men and women as members, offer children's life insurance protection, and adopt the legal reserve system.
While the name changed in the mid-1930s to Catholic Life Insurance, the organization's desire to help their fellow man and to protect their families has never diminished.
[7] The Old High Hill Cemetery is located on a six-acre tract on FM 2672, approximately one mile south of the St. Mary Catholic Church.
The land was originally conveyed by John Herndon, N. W. Faison, and Henry Ebeling for the purpose of erecting a schoolhouse or college.
Many pioneers who developed the agricultural, business, and cultural pursuits of the community are buried in Old High Hill Cemetery.
The barnlike structure consisted of stucco over brick, and utilized a German made sugar beet crusher adapted locally to seed processing.
After the Galveston, Houston & San Antonio Railroad bypassed High Hill, Hillje moved the mill to Weimar, 1880.
After serving as an artillery officer in the Prussian Army, Creuzbauer immigrated to Texas in the 1840s and settled at High Hill in Fayette County.
On October 12, 1861, following the outbreak of the Civil War, Creuzbauer raised company A of the Fifth Texas Field Artillery, consisting primarily of German immigrants, in Fayette County.
This unit assembled at Camp Brown, with Creuzbauer serving as captain, relocated to Ringgold barracks in November 1862, and was assigned to garrison duty in the Rio Grande valley throughout 1863.
Shortly after the Battle of Calcasieu Pass, Creuzbauer's resignation was accepted, and he returned to farming along Buckners Creek in Fayette County, leaving command of the unit to his brother-in-law, Charles Welhausen.
