Texas Historical Marker #08342
Greenvine Gas Discovery. Apparently the first use in Texas of natural gas for fuel occurred in 1979 near here. William Seidel, a farmer, grist mill and cotton gin owner, and merchant, trying to dig a water well, struck gas at approximate depth of 106 feet. The gas was piped to a farmhouse nearby. Production of gas and oil has spread to 210 Texas counties; 27 pipeline companies export gas. Annual rate of production is about 8 trillion cubic feet. Texas has 42.3 per cent of the proven gas reserves in America, and it has a 19,895-foot well, believed to be world's deepest. #8342
?, Greenvine, TX, United States
Texas Historical Marker #08343
Greenvine Baptist Church. Ebenezer German Baptist Church was organized in 1861 following a revival preached by Frank Kiefer (1833-1909), a German immigrant and convert to the Baptist faith. Commonly known as Greenvine Baptist Church, the congregation first met in a log cabin owned by Michael Moller. The Rev. F. J. Gleiss (1826-1912), a former Methodist minister and fellow German immigrant, succeeded Kiefer as pastor in 1868. This site was purchased in 1870, and a sanctuary was built in 1879. Services were conducted in the German language until replaced by English in 1947. #8343
?, Greenvine, TX, United States
Texas Historical Marker #08407
Witte-Williams House. Victor Witte (1820-1900), who came from Hanover, Germany, to Latium in 1848 built a 3-room frame house here for son Armin in 1872; later added log cabin from Mill Creek Crossing of nearby Houston-Austin Wagon Road, as a hay barn. Witte's granddaughter, Emma Williams, and family moved here in 1906, built 2-room ell and porch in 1914. Her descendants sold place in 1969 to Mr. and Mrs. Robin Elverson, whose restoration included annexing the log cabin hay barn as living room. #8407
?, Greenvine, TX, United States
Texas Historical Marker #08344
Greenvine Schools. Public education in the rural community of Greenvine began in 1880, when the Greenvine School was established near this site. The students, predominantly German in descent and Lutheran and Baptist in faith, began attending classes taught in German at the Emmanuel Lutheran Church parsonage. Classes later were relocated to a site near the Greenvine Baptist Church Cemetery and finally to a building 70 feet south of this site. A school for local African American children known as the Waller Chapel School (1.75 mi. SE) was established in 1895. Classes were held in a wood-frame building that also served as a house of worship for the Waller Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church congregation. In 1949, after schools in the Greenvine, Latium, and Burton communities were consolidated, the Greenvine schools closed. Local students began attending the Burton Rural High School, which offered 12 grades of instruction. The last Greenvine schoolhouse was relocated to the new school site. The Waller Chapel Schoolhouse continued to be used for church services until 1965. #8344
?, Greenvine, TX, United States