Dear Members and Friends of the PHSSW,
Thanks primarily due to Mr. Jan Koenig, many of the questions raised in an earlier column regarding First Presbyterian Church in Barker, Texas have been answered. It’s important to recognize Mr. Koenig’s research and assistance and I am profoundly grateful. Now, it’s also important to share with you what he has so graciously shared with in his email. Many thanks, Mr. Koenig. By the way, Jan’s wife, Belinda, served at one time as pastor of the New Hope Church.
Dear Dr. Currie –
Thank you for your reply. I agree with you that the relationship between the First Presbyterian Church of Barker and New Hope is not a mystery. However, I believe the story may be a little different than what you presented. I don’t have access to the Presbyterian Historical Society records, so I can’t comment on those, but I do have access to newspaper records and documented first-person accounts of what happened regarding the two churches (actually one church with two different names and two different locations) in the late 1970’s.
I’m attaching the supporting material, but here are the salient facts as I glean them from my research material.
In either 1975 or 1976, Rev. Schulenberg and his family moved from the northeast to Texas so he could take over as pastor at the First Presbyterian Church of Barker. At the time, the Barker church was struggling. Because the area closer to Katy was experiencing more rapid growth, the congregation relocated temporarily to a strip shopping center at Mason Road and I-10 in Katy. The first service in the new temporary location appears to have been on January 1, 1978. In late 1977 or early 1978, the congregation, with help from the Presbytery, purchased 5 acres of land on Mason Road very near the shopping center. Construction began on the new church building shortly thereafter. In 1978, since the church was no longer in Barker, they renamed the church as New Hope. I don’t know exactly what that entailed administratively, but I feel certain that the record of the Barker church closing in 1978 was part of the renaming process. The now-renamed New Hope congregation moved into their permanent new church home in 1980. As far as I can tell, the Barker church ceased to exist as a congregation in Barker at the end of 1977, but continued without a break as an active congregation with the same pastor (Rev. Schulenberg) in the new Katy location.
In addition, I’ve been able to create, with some small degree of confidence, a sequence of pastors at the Barker church from the late 1940’s going forward. I haven’t included the supporting material for this because it’s largely derived from repetitive weekly announcements of church services in the local newspaper (the Brookshire Times). I don’t know for sure, but in some cases, these pastors may have served multiple churches simultaneously and may perhaps not even have been fully ordained Ruling Elders.
1946-1960 James Gleason
1960-1964 Wm. Leonard
1964-1968 Robert Richardson
Note: At some point between 1968 and 1970, a transition appears to have occurred, but I don’t know which year it took place.
1970-1971 James Gleason
1971-1976 Wm. Drake
1976- Wm. Schulenberg
I can also confirm that as of 1961 the church was part of the United Presbyterian Church, so it was indeed part of the Northern Church.
Note: One of the attached documents is not clearly identified, and, in fact, it looks a little strange. It has time stamps on the left hand side. This is a portion of a transcript of the sermon preached by Rev. Cindy Mood at the memorial service in December for Bill Schulenberg. I imagine you knew that he had passed away. His wife, Lynn, is still alive. They were married at the time he took over as pastor of the Barker church., and she may be able and willing to corroborate some of this story.
I hope this helps.
Jan Koenig
