Wendish Heritage
Museum & Lee County Courthouse - April 25, 2008
The
April Day Trip to Serbin and Giddings, TX was an interesting and
informative trip back into the mid and late 1800's. Twenty-six members
and seven guests (33 total) enjoyed the beautiful ride into the rolling
hills of East Central Texas on our Harris County
bus, piloted by driver Ricky.
We departed Bayland Park at 8:30 am and after one pit stop in
Hempstead, we arrived at the St. Paul Lutheran Church in Serbin around
10:45 am. St. Paul's is one of the Painted Churches of Texas. We were
met by the Wendish Heritage Museum's curator, Sandra Matthijeti, who
gave us a brief history of the church (c. 1867) and the Wendish
migration from Germany to Serbin in the mid-1800's.
Afterwards, we walked over to the Kilian Cabin, which was
built shortly after their arrival in the area in 1855. It served as a
church, school and parsonage.
After walking through the historic cemetery, we were served a
traditional Wendish lunch by ladies from the Wendish community. We
enjoyed a menu of sausage, sauerkraut, homemade noodles, beets,
pickles, homemade bread & butter, tea, coffee &
peaches. After about 1 1/2 hours touring the museum's two buildings, we
all met again for coffee cake and coffee prior to our departure.
The short ride back to Giddings delivered us to the historic Lee County
Courthouse (c. 1897). Hillary, from Judge Gonzalez's office
gave us a great
tour of the recently restored structure. We made our way from the
basement to the third floor balcony of a courtroom via the spiraling
staircase. We got a chance
to work off some of the coffeecake calories!
We departed Giddings mid-afternoon and enjoyed the ride back to
Bayland Park, arriving around 5:00 pm. The weather was almost perfect
and everyone seemed to enjoy the brief trip to the 1800's. We hope to
see all of you again on the next Day Trip. As before, the
best part of all of this was that we enjoyed each other’s
company, laughing and having a great time.
Attendees were: Jimmie
Lucas, Jean Dixon, Ralph & Estella Garcia, Daryl Moss, Israel
&
Nora Morales, Charles & Sylvia Slanina, Pat & Annette
Hawkins,
Glenn & Ligia Haworth, Mercedes Alva, Teresa Lippold, Roger
&
Sandy Coughran, Joe & Jeanne Brandt, Bob & Gail
Wolters,
Margaret Slanina, Marie Kucera, Bob & Marian Gruber, Tony
&
Susan Leigh, Howard & Mary Lee Cameron, Israel & Nora
Gonzalez,
and Lawson & Kay Cook
