St. Francisville

ST. FRANCISVILLE, TEXAS . St. Francisville, also known as the Polish Village, was near what is now Farm Road 521 some ten miles south of Bay City in south central Matagorda County. The community was named for the St. Francis Catholic Church built there in 1895 on land donated by Mary Jadwiga (Petrucha) Seerden and the Lawrence Butter couple. The town was settled by Polish immigrants, some of whom had begun arriving in the county in the 1850s ( see   POLES ). Many were from Lagiewvnik, District of Lublinitz, Prussia. The St. Francis Catholic Church was destroyed by hurricane in 1896 and was rebuilt that same year. The new structure survived numerous subsequent storms, including two in the 1940s that knocked it off its foundation. During the 1960s the church received a historic marker for being the first Catholic church in the county (with the exception of any Spanish missions). In the 1980s the St. Francis Church and its small adjoining cemetery were still visited for special occasions, including a mass on All Souls Day.