George Gongora/Caller-Times file EARLY CONGREGATION: First United Methodist Church’s congregation receives a blessing from the Rev. Ray Kiser.

Religion had a slow start here
City built its first house of worship with clay, crushed shells, in 1853

By Murphy Givens, Viewpoints Editor

   When Zachary Taylor's army was camped in 1845 in the small outpost of Corpus Christi, preparing for war with Mexico, a Catholic priest, the Rev. Ubald Estany, arrived to spread the gospel.
   But it was not until 1853, a year after Corpus Christi became a city, that it gained its first house of worship.
   Religion got off to a slow start, Eugenie Price Briscoe wrote in her doctoral thesis, because preachers didn't want to move to a "godless city." Corpus Christi was a rough town more conducive to dirt-floor saloons with cockfight pits than buildings with pews and pulpits.
   City's first churches
   The first church was the First Methodist Church, built in 1853 of clay mixed with crushed shells. It was at the corner of Mann and Mesquite. The 200 worshippers sat on rough benches - men on one side; women on the other.
   The following year, the Rev. Bernard O'Reilly built the first Catholic church - the original St. Patrick's on Tancahua, between Antelope and Leopard.
   The Presbyterians in 1859 tried to establish a church, but there was a falling out among prospective members. It would be another eight years, after the war, before the Presbyterians organized.
   The Episcopalians, who organized in 1860, finally got their church in 1873. The Church of the Good Shepherd, at Chaparral and Taylor, was a landmark.
   The First Baptist Church was organized in 1878. But the founding members didn't get a permanent meeting site until they bought a blacksmith shop on Mesquite Street in 1883. The church then was known for its fish and oyster socials held under hackberry trees.
   St. John Baptist Church was founded in 1875 as the first Baptist church for blacks in Corpus Christi. The first meeting was held in a barn, and the first church was built on North Broadway.
   The Mexican Methodist Church was organized in 1874. Our Lady of Guadalupe, built on Tancahua in 1903, was the first Catholic church built expressly for Hispanics; services were conducted in Spanish. The church was moved and the name later changed to Holy Cross Church.
   In 1906, St. Boniface Church was built for the German community. As Czech settlers moved into the Kostoryz area, they also joined St. Boniface's. The church was renamed in 1931 in honor of the Slavic patron saints Cyril and Methodius.
   Early Jewish settlers
   Corpus Christi's early Jewish settlers were influential, but their numbers were small. After the turn of the century, out-of-towners were needed to form a quorum of 10 men necessary for a Jewish service.
   When Rabbi Sidney Wolf arrived in 1932, he found a congregation of 60 families using a frame building with a pot-bellied stove. He led a campaign to build a new temple, which resulted in the construction of Temple Beth El, dedicated in 1937.
   Corpus Christi Cathedral, one of the city's most beautiful churches, was built on Upper Broadway on land donated by the John G. Kenedy family. It opened in 1940.
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