Trinity Lutheran Church – Old Dime Box, Texas

One hundred and twenty years ago, as the nineteenth century drew to a close, Lutherans in and around Dime Box organized Trinity Lutheran Church.

For forty-two years some time, the congregation met in a repurposed home followed by two different school buildings. In 1941 the congregation purchased a church building in Lincoln from the Texas Synod and relocated it to the present site*. (I know there is a “St. Peter’s Cemetery” on CR 388, just east of SH 21 near Lincoln – does anybody know if there was a St. Peter’s Lutheran Church there?)**

Twenty years later, that building was damaged beyond repair when the remnants of Hurricane Carla passed through Lee County in September of 1961. Construction on the present building began that December, and it was dedicated the following May.

Pr. Ray Spitzenberger‘s mother, Adele, played the organ at Trinity for many years. She and her husband, Max, are buried in the cemetery behind the church (not visible in this photo – it’s about two tenths of a mile away on the right side of this photo) and the stained glass window nearest the organ– on the cemetery side of the church– is dedicated in their memory.

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Update – July 22, 2019

* Additional research seems to indicate that the building moved in 1941 was not purchased from the Texas Synod. Pr. Ray Spitzenberger provided me with some information from Trinity’s 85th anniversary history booklet that is not entirely clear.

It seems that Trinity may have purchased two buildings: one at some undetermined time prior to 1941. This building was probably purchased from the Texas Synod (at that time operating as a district of the Ohio Synod), so probably prior to 1930 (when the Ohio Synod was merged into the American Lutheran Church. Then in October of 1941, the congregation seems to have purchase another church building from the Evangelical Synod (perhaps the Evangelical and Reformed Church, which in Texas was the German Evangelical Synod of North America prior to 1932). If our reading of the history is correct, the older Texas Synod building then became the annex.

** There was a St. Peter’s Lutheran Church in Lincoln. I haven’t been able to find much so far except a reference in the ELCA’s Southwestern Texas Synod archives that reads “Lincoln, (Lee Co.) St. Peter, W. Mueller 1923, disbanded 1952.”

This puzzle will require more digging!