Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, Volume 7, Number 1, January 1997 Page: 10
70 p. : ill., maps ; 28 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal
a weekly newspaper which was established in the summer of 1857 by the outspoken James
Davis Baker. In addition to being a source of local, national, and international news,
Baker's paper was, in its earliest years, a bellwether of local opinion and an outlet for local
poets and other writers. However, belying the notion that journalism is a religion of its own,
on September 16, 1858, Baker adjourned with his staff to a camp meeting some three miles
south of Columbus, shutting down the business for a week.13
Religion, it seems, was encroaching on everything. In 1852, either William B.
Dewees or Emanetta Cara Kimball (probably the latter) wrote that "the gambler with his
bowie-knife and pistols, roaming about seeking whom he might devour" had, in the last
decade, been replaced by "the sober, pious farmer, the steady merchant, the minister of the
gospel, and the professor of religion." Probably, the writer was exaggerating. Certainly,
however, the transformation had begun.'4
Soon enough, Lutherans, Catholics, and Methodists were popping up every-
where. Gideon Scherer, who was by profession a Lutheran minister, arrived in Columbus
in January 1853. At first, he apparently found few residents of the city who were interested
in religion at all or Lutheranism in particular, and so turned his attention to the instruction
of children. He established the Union Sunday School, which initially convened at the
courthouse. As his school grew in popularity, Scherer continued to try to organize an adult
congregation. He made little progress, however, until early 1854, when a ready-made one
was delivered into his hands. That year, a number of Lutherans from the western part of
Virginia moved to Columbus, and, on April 9, they named Scherer their pastor. By the fall
of 1854, the congregation had moved to erect a building to house Scherer's Sunday school
and their religious services. On December 27, 1854, Scherer acquired property on the
corner of Spring and Live Oak Streets, three blocks from the courthouse, for the facility.
The building was in use by the spring of 1855.15
The Lutheran invasion from Virginia was quickly followed by one from
Frelsburg. By December 1856, Gideon Scherer's father, Jacob, who also was a minister,
had arrived in Columbus and was attempting to start a second Lutheran congregation, this
one for Germans. He quickly succeeded to some degree. On December 1, 1857, the trustees
13 Colorado Citizen, August 28, 1858, October 2, 1858. The earliest known extant edition of the Colo-
rado Citizen is volume 1, number 4, dated August 15, 1857. Prior to the establishment of the Citizen, the people
of Colorado County evidently regarded a newspaper published in La Grange, the Texas Monument, as their local
paper (see Texas Monument, July 27, 1853; Charles William Tait to James Asbury Tait, October 2, 1850, Ms.
32, Tait Family Papers, Archives of the Nesbitt Memorial Library, Columbus).
14 Dewees, Letters from an Early Settler of Texas, p. 311.
15 Book of Record of Luther Chapel Columbus, Texas, The Center for American History, Univer-
sity of Texas, Austin; Colorado County Deed Records, Book I, p. 440. The property which Scherer acquired
is precisely described as subdivided lots 1 and 2 in block 48. The Scherer deed was followed by another deed,
which apparently supersedes the first, that transferred the property to the congregation itself. That deed was
dated January 21, 1856 (see Colorado County Deed Records, Book I, p. 738).10
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Nesbitt Memorial Library. Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, Volume 7, Number 1, January 1997, periodical, January 1997; Columbus, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth151399/m1/10/?q=nesbitt%20memorial%20library%20journal: accessed May 5, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Nesbitt Memorial Library.