Serbin: Where Lutheranism in Texas Originated by Linda née Rubke Kennell

This article appeared in The Junior Historian magazine of the Texas State Historical Association, Austin, Texas in March 1967. Here is how it happened.

My family moved to Austin, Texas when I was just 16. (My dad, Walter Rubke, had accepted the position of President at Concordia College in Austin.) I had no idea how different Texas and California could be. I felt like an immigrant! Before I could graduate from high school, I was required to take Texas History. (Really?) The course required a research paper, using first person sources whenever possible. So, one lovely Saturday morning my dad drove me out to see St Paul Lutheran Church in Serbin, Texas to learn about how immigrating Lutherans began their lives in Texas. We touched the 3' thick walls of the church, climbed upstairs to the balcony where men sat during worship, and stood in the pulpit above the altar. We wandered through the cemetery and took a rubbing from one of the tombstones. A Serbin resident translated the inscription for us, since it was written in Wendish. It was a memorable adventure. I hope you enjoy revisiting it with me.

The Prussian Wends and Their Home

This article was first published in 1877 in Harper's New Monthly Magazine, volume LIV, March 1877.

Wendish History by Mrs. Marata Ornaf-Nawka, daughter of Prof. Dr. Michel Nawka

Mrs Marata Ornaf-Nawka (in Sorbian Marhata Ornafowa-Nawkec) was born on 28 Jan 1915 in the village Radibor (Radwor) near Bautzen (Budyšin). She was later married in the United States and died on 25 Feb 2008 in Flushing, Queens, New York. She was the daughter of the well known Sorb Michał Nawka.