Zionville

Zionville (Zionsville) was 3½ miles south of the intersection of Farm roads 2679 and 390, six miles northwest of Brenham in western Washington County. In 1870 Rev. William Pfennig organized Zion Lutheran Church there. A community named for the church grew up around it and obtained a post office by 1872. This settlement prospered during the 1870s. Adolph Streckert served as postmaster until 1880, when the Zionville post office closed. During the later nineteenth century immigrants from Germany, especially Prussia, continued settling in Zionville. The church and an agricultural economy sustained the community, though it did not develop commercially because of the proximity of Brenham and Gay Hill. In 1872 the church entered the first Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Texas. Three of Zion Lutheran's early pastors, Rudolf Jaeggli, Ernst Huber, and G. Stricker, later became synod presidents. In 1901 a large frame church building was dedicated; also on the church grounds were a parsonage and a large education building. In 1905 the Texas Evangelical Lutheran Synod met at Zionville. Zionville declined by the 1930s as the county became more urbanized. In the 1940s the church had a congregation of 465 and a Sunday school of 138. In 1988 only the new Zion Lutheran Church, which was erected in 1970, and its parsonage, educational building, and large cemetery remained at Zionville. This church was still a center of religious, social, and athletic activities, and its congregation, most of whom resided in Brenham, included descendents of the original Zionville settlers.

Adapted from the official Handbook of Texas, a state encyclopedia developed by the Texas State Historical Association (TSHA). It is an authoritative source of trusted historical records.