About

Soon after they settled in the area, Westphalia's first families named their community after the Westphalia province in Germany from which many of them had immigrated. They began having Sunday prayer meetings in the home of Theodore Rabroker, the first settler. These were times of worship and fellowship, and because they were pleased with the soil and location, the German natives purchased 100 acres of land for a church and school. Their efforts were thwarted, however, when the first two structures were destroyed by storms in the early 1880s. During a meeting on Christmas Eve in 1893, Rev. Michael Heintzelman recommended building a new and larger church. After Rev. H M. Simoni drew the plans and Andreus Fuchs of Tours was hired as contractor, work began shortly after the new year. All the stone for the foundation was shipped by rail to Lott from a quarry in Muldoon, Texas, and the timber was brought from Waco. Parishioners volunteered to haul, without charge, all building materials from the nearest railroad. As many as 80 loads were hauled with wagons from Lott in one day - a distance of eight miles.