Two men, Charles A. Grote and Conrad Julius Pluenneke, were largely responsible for
shaping the destiny of the Beaver Creek Methodist Church which later became the
Hilda Methodist Church. Charles Grote who began serving as a minister in the Methodist
Episcopal Church, South in 1848, was assigned to Fredericksburg in 1851.
He began making trips to the Llano River settlements where the congregations met
in homes, under trees or arbors and even on a rock outcropping upstream from the Grossville Lane crossing at Beaver Creek. |
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Conrad
Pluenneke became a minister in the Methodist
Episcopal Church, South in 1850. That same year
he began living on the Llano River at the mouth
of Willow Creek in what would become the Lower
Willow Creek Community. Pluenneke served the
churches in the area as a circuit rider. The
various churches in the area were growing with
new settlers and Conrad Pluenneke convinced the
group at Beaver Creek to construct a parsonage
in 1861. He served the Hilda congregation from
1858-59, 1865-71 and 1875-77. |
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The parsonage, and later the church, cemetery and the "Esshauser" (family eating houses)
were all constructed on fifty acres of land donated by Gottlieb Brandenberger and Fritz Kneese.
Rev. J. A. Schaper and his family were the first minister and family to live in the
new parsonage. In 1862 the congregation constructed the first church building which was
used as both a church and a school for 32 years. As the end of the century approached
the congregation grew and a new school building was constructed. |
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First Church and School 1862 |
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When the Rev. William Buehrer arrived from Houston in 1899 he desired better
living quarters, so a new parsonage was built which provided a home for ministers
and their families for fifty-eight years. |
Rev. William
Buehrer, his wife Lydia and their family |
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Rev.
Buehrer also convinced the congregation to
construct a new and larger church building. It
was begun and completed in 1902 at a cost of
$4000. The rock building is in the shape of a
cross with beautiful stained glass windows and a steeple that is 62 feet high. |
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Hilda Church 1902 |
Beginning in 1941 Hilda was combined with Prairie Mountain
in Llano county and the minister served both congregations. Later Castell was included in
the charge and the minister lived in the Castell parsonage starting in 1956. This arrangement
has continued through the years until, in 2008 the Hilda and Trinity congregations decided to
become "stand alone" churches. A groundbreaking ceremony was held at Hilda in February, 2010 for
the new parsonage which was completed that summer. |
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