In considering the history of the Prairie Chapel Community, it is interesting to note the very importance of one man to seed and nourish the life and growth of a community. Even to this day, nearly every family in this area gladly declares its roots to this unique couple, Mr. and Mrs. Heinrich Engelbrecht.
Prairie Chapel is the name of a small rural community in northwestern McLennan County. It is also the name of a school district created in January 1884.
Most people in the community are of German and Austrian descent. Many descendants of the community’s founders still live in this area. The Engelbrechts, Gauers, Westerfelds, Webers, Weiss, Rabbes, Hodels, Schultzs, Muellers, Landreieds, Gohlkes, Massirers, and Westerfields can boast of names dating back to the beginning of the community. Nearly all the families around Crawford can claim kin to one of these, and many can claim kin to several of them.
Heinrich Engelbrecht was born in West Phalen, Germany. He met his wife, Wilhelmine Winkelmann after coming to America, but she was from West Phalen, Germany also. He came to the United States at the age of twenty-one and settled first in the Cedar Hill area near Brenham, Texas. He came to escape military service, but he was soon fighting with the Confederate Army during the Civil War.
In 1885, after four years of service, Mr. Englebrecht came to Waco and Crawford looking for land with wood, water, and pasture. In Crawford, he met an old army friend, Harrington. That evening they visited until two o’clock in the morning. Harrington told him of a man who had sixteen hundred acres for sale. Mr. Englebrecht bought the land for five and eight dollars per acre, and he sold his two farms in Cedar Hill for twenty-five and thirty-five dollars per acre.
Mr. Engelbrecht wished to pay for the land by cashier’s check, but the owner was skeptical of such paper money. After going to the bank, he paid the man. He put the rolled-up wad of bills under his arm and took off. He was asked if he was not afraid it would be stolen from him. He pulled back his coat and displayed a six-shooter.
Mr. and Mrs. Engelbrecht were converted from Lutherans to Baptists. They were Lutherans in Germany, but when they came to America, they were converted to the Baptist belief by the Texas Baptists. When they came to Prairie Chapel, there were no German Baptist Churches here. Determined not to neglect their Christian life, they help Bible study meetings in their home. Later they were help in the public schoolhouse, Prairie Chapel.
There were very few German people in the community when Mr. Engelbrecht arrived, but many more came later, due to his encouragement. He would rent his farms to them. He had a number of farms and eventually owned seven thousand acres of land, most of which is in possession of his descendants today. He needed renters and laborers to work his land. Many families came from Cedar Hill and some came from Austria and Germany.
On October 25, 1891, the Canaan Baptist Church was organized with an approximate number of forty charter members and Reverend J.E. Sydow as its pastor. While eating together before the service in the home of Mr. and Mrs. Engelbrecht, Brother J.F. Gleiss noted the abundance of milk and honey set before them and commented, “Why don’t we call our church “Canaan”? At the meeting it was so named. Mr. Englebrecht generally handled about seventy-five beehives.
On April 14, 1894, it was decided to build the church on a place Mr. Engelbrecht bought for the purpose. By August, they decided the church should be fifty feet by thirty feet at a cost of eight hundred dollars. The church was built that same year.
At first, Mr. Engelbrecht donated three acres for the church, but later donated another fifty acres. In those years, a pastor did not get much salary, but he was given twenty acres of pasture for cattle and thirty acres of cultivated land to work. In this way, he and his family had additional income.
By May 1901, Mr. Engelbrecht offered to give the title of all the church land if the church would pay the new pastor three hundred and fifty dollars plus the parsonage and the income from the church land. The pastor would be required to teach four months in German. Parents were to furnish fifty cents per pupil and wood for the fuel.
Some early baptismal services were held in Philip Massirer’s pasture. Often at these outdoor baptisms, large crowds would gather, and sometimes neighborhood boys would disturb with rocks and noise. Wet clothing was changed in tents or sometimes they would wrap up and walk or ride to the nearest home.
For a long time, all church services were in German. Eventually, they began having one service a month in English. In 1939, it was decided to carry on all services in English and on September 11, 1932, it was decided to baptize in the English Church of Crawford.
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