Rehburg

Rehburg Settlement (Rehburg) is on Farm Road 1948 twelve miles northwest of Brenham in northwestern Washington County. It was founded by German immigrants in 1847 near Jerdelle and Old Rocky creeks and named for Rehburg, Hannover, the hometown of an early resident, Ludwig Heine. Rehburg residents received Methodist circuit visits in the community's earliest era. A pastor from Berlin, Texas, began Lutheran services at Rehburg in 1859. St. Paul's Evangelical Lutheran Church, organized in 1870, became the German Lutheran center for the vicinity. E. Huber and A. Falkenberg, two of Rehburg's earliest pastors, were presidents of the first Evangelical Lutheran Synod in Texas. In 1887 the synod met at this community. By 1878 St. Paul's established a school. In April 1898 the teacher, Paul G. Ranft, became postmaster at the Rehburg post office. With the growing prosperity of nearby Burton, the post office in Rehburg closed in 1900. The St. Paul's congregation repaired the damage done to the church building by the Galveston hurricane of 1900. In 1915 the community had two schools, St. Paul's and Rehburg, which were consolidated in that year. After 1939 the consolidated school was merged with the Eberhardt school. In 1920 St. Paul's Church was remodeled for its fiftieth anniversary celebration. A new church was built in 1968. Rehburg had a post office from 1898 to 1905 and a store and sawmill from 1951 through the 1970s. The active St. Paul's congregation has preserved the vitality of this predominantly German-American community, which in 1988 had a 4-H Club and church societies engaged in charities.