It was 1882. John D. Rockefeller had founded Standard Oil of New Jersey, a company that eventually would control most of the nation’s energy sources and much of its national policy. Famous bandit Jesse James is shot in the back of the head, killed by a fellow outlaw. In 1882, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Virginia Woolf and John Barrymore were all born, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Charles Darwin and Mary Todd Lincoln died.

Texas had only been readmitted to the United States for 12 years after the Civil War and Reconstruction. Former cowtown San Antonio was evolving into a growing community of more than 20,000 residents, but was still the largest city in the state. Stagecoach services had just ended as the railroad came to town. King William, the city’s first residential suburb, was beginning to be developed by German immigrants.

And, on Feb. 19, in an upstairs room in the Odd Fellow’s Building at the corner of Houston and St. Mary’s streets across from the Gunter Hotel, 14 people gathered to petition for the organization of a new San Antonio church.
The story actually began a few months before. The Rev. William Howell Buchanan had been sent by the Presbyterian Board of Home Missions of New York and commissioned by the Presbytery of Austin, itself created in 1867, to organize a church in San Antonio. It was a mission he had handled before, founding and becoming the first pastor of Westminster Presbyterian Church in St. Louis, Mo., in late 1873.

From 1880 to 1881, Buchanan served as pastor of the newly renamed First Presbyterian Church of Georgetown – the church moved from Round Rock earlier that year – but he left that post to head south and start another church. He arrived in San Antonio on Dec. 1, 1881 and, legend has it, one of the first persons he contacted was George Washington Brackenridge.

Brackenridge was a civic power in the San Antonio of the late 19th century. Born in Indiana in 1832, he attended Hanover College, the University of Indiana, and Harvard University, and moved to Texas with his parents in 1853. Brackenridge was surveyor of Jackson County from about 1857 to 1860.

Although his three brothers served in the Confederate Army, Brackenridge – who throughout his life was known as “Colonel” – never joined the military. Instead, he became a war profiteer in the Matamoros cotton trade and with his family and a friend formed the cotton firm of Brackenridge, Bates, and Co.

Sometime during the Civil War, Brackenridge was forced to leave Texas after claiming Union sympathies. He was appointed United States Treasury agent on July 30, 1863, and worked for the Treasury Department in New Orleans after the capture of that city by Union forces. After the war he became a Republican and a prohibitionist.

In 1866, he organized the San Antonio National Bank, and was active in the city’s financial circles when he was approached by Buchanan. (In the following years, Brackenridge continued to increase his civic influence, founding what is today the San Antonio Water System, becoming president of a trust company, serving as a major shareholder in the Express Publishing Co. which published the San Antonio Express-News, serving as president of the San Antonio school board and a director of the San Antonio-Aransas Pass Railroad, leading a group that founded the San Antonio Zoo and serving as a regent of the University of Texas.)

After several conversations, Brackenridge agreed to support Buchanan in his mission.
But Buchanan didn’t wait for that support to materialize. Immediately after arriving in the city, he rented a room over the fire station at Avenue C and advertised in both the San Antonio Express and the San Antonio Light that services for a new church were set for Sunday, Dec. 4, 1881. That day was cold and stormy, and only a single potential parishioner showed up. Major Daniel N. Bash was a paymaster at Fort Sam Houston. The two conducted a brief service and agreed on a second for the following Sunday.

The service Dec. 11 was held at the Odd Fellow’s Building, a central spot in town. There is some confusion whether Major Bash suggested the location or it was arranged by Col. Brackenridge, but that site served as the quarters for the growing congregation.

On Feb. 19, 1882, after the services, the 14 gathered there voted to organize a formal church. It was a varied group.
Capt. Javan R. Irvine and his wife, Margaret, and son Javan Jr., were no doubt a military family stationed at Fort Sam Houston. They transferred from the Fort Street Presbyterian Church of Detroit.

George W. Konkle and his wife Elizabeth came from the Trinity Methodist Episcopal Church in San Antonio, while Mrs. Emma R. McSane had been a member of First Presbyterian Church of Austin. The Buchanan family was well represented with the minister’s wife Mary, his daughter Ellen and son Sidney all joining from the First Presbyterian Church of Georgetown. Mrs. J. Adelia Vanderlip and Miss Martha Raymond came from First Presbyterian of San Antonio. George Hill came to the new church by promise of a letter of transfer from the Second Baptist Church of South Shields, England.
It was interesting that Major Bash was present at that first meeting, but did not then become a member of the new church. George Brackenridge, a frequent visitor and consistent financial supporter, never joined the church at all but, like Major Bash, he did become a trustee and involved in the business side of operations. Brackenridge’s mother, Isabella, and sister, Eleanor, however, were founding members; Isabella transferred her membership from the Methodist Episcopal Church of Texana and Eleanor joined by reaffirmation of faith, having been a member of an unidentified Presbyterian church that had disbanded.

With George’s influence and money, Eleanor was a San Antonio power in her own right. She became a champion of civic and social betterment locally, and was active in the Texas Federation of Women's Clubs, the Daughters of the American Revolution, the Texas Mothers' Congress and the Order of the Eastern Star. Like her brother, she was a firm believer in prohibition and a strong supporter of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union.

She founded the Woman's Club of San Antonio and served as its president for seven years. Under her guidance the club turned its attention from literary subjects to such issues as the need for police matrons, female probation officers, industrial and vocational education, and the general welfare of women and children.

Neither George or Eleanor ever married and they died three years apart, living in the home that George had built for his mother. That home was the first building of what would become Incarnate Word University.

A week after the vote to organize a church, a group attending a second meeting set up a constitution and bylaws and called Rev. Buchanan as the new church’s pastor.

And seven days later, Eleanor Brackenridge organized the church’s Ladies’ Aid Society – with herself as president – which immediately decided that a temporary chapel should be established on property at Camden and Lexington streets.

The land, encompassing several city blocks, was originally a Spanish land grant purchased by local businessmen I.A. Paschal and Nat Lewis around 1850. According to the original plat of “Upper San Antonio” as it was called, Paschal and Lewis set aside one block of land – the northern portion of the park – as a public square. At that time the block was bounded by Second Avenue (Lexington), Fourth Street (Camden), Third Avenue (Baltimore) and Third Street (Dallas).
By the time the plan for Upper San Antonio was filed in the Bexar County deed records in May 1869, the southern portion of the park bounded by Lexington, Dallas, Richmond and Camden was set aside as dedicated ground. Lewis and Pascal eventually divided the property and when Pascal died in 1869, the property was sold to settle his estate. Even though the location was considered far from town, presumably the city of San Antonio obtained some of it, because an 1881 City Council meeting specifically allocated funds to maintain Madison Square Park. The source of the name is unknown.

Buchanan, presumably with Brackenridge’s help, secured three lots of the Pascal property immediately west of the park, and with the Board of Trustees and the Ladies’ Aid Society, built a temporary structure for the fledgling church. Deeds for the lots were accepted by the trustees on March 8 and services were first held there on the property March 22. The decision had been made early on to name the new place of worship after the park: Madison Square Presbyterian Church.
The Presbyterian Board of Erection, based in Philadelphia, offered new churches with both plans and potential financing. “Plan 16” was received in San Antonio, one of an estimated 213 plans the board sent out that year, according to its 1882 annual report.

George Konkle, one of the trustees, was a builder and, on May 31, bid $11,000 to construct the church, but a majority of the board decided to ask for other estimates.

Even as construction plans were being developed, Madison Square Presbyterian Church almost ended its brief existence at that location. In August, the new church was offered a new site, a lot on the northwest corner of Milam Square, which would be donated if the church would build there. The lot was near the Santa Rosa Hospital, built in 1869 and, although considered on the western edge of town, was a lot closer to City Hall and the fledgling business center of San Antonio.
After a lengthy discussion, the congregation of 15 “and a few others” decided to turn the decision of whether or not to move over to the Board of Trustees “to act in the matter of transferring our church to another location, according to their judgment and wisdom.” The only provisos were that the Madison Square property couldn’t be disposed of until a new location was absolutely secured and, if there was to be a move, the trustees had to make arrangements to dismantle the chapel there and have it rebuilt on the new land.

The Board of Trustees, however, deliberated and decided “that Madison Square is a better location for our church than Milam Square and the best site that we can obtain without considerable delay and disadvantage.” They voted to have the church’s building committee have the Madison Square lots surveyed “and proceed immediately to have our church edifice erected on those lots.”

Three bids came in, and Konkle dropped his estimate to $10,200, well under the other contenders. The cornerstone of the new permanent church was laid on Nov. 30, and a Bible, a copy of the San Antonio Express, the San Antonio Evening News and names of the 50 children enrolled in the Sabbath School were placed into the stone.

At the ceremony, Buchanan thanked all who “put in subscription papers for aid in the erection of a permanent church,” and especially George Brackenridge “who had given me his hand and words of encouragement at the beginning, headed the list with a liberal subscription.” Church membership was 27.

In addition to the subscriptions for the building which by 1883 totaled more than $7,000, donations and passing the collection plate had generated enough money for an organ for $35, two month’s salary for an organist at $20, some $16 for repairs on the roof of the temporary chapel and “other expenses” totaling $98.95.

A congregational meeting on New Years Eve of 1883 announced some money problems: Trustee and elder Konkle had finished the building, but was still owed $700 for the work. The congregation voted to borrow the funding.

And there was $150 overdue on the pastor’s salary as well. Members decided Buchanan could wait until more payments from pew rentals came in. Konkle abruptly resigned his membership in January and, while no official reason was cited, it is likely that it had to do with the lack of payment. In 1883, $700 was the equivalent of more than $13,500 today. Buchanan noted that Konkle “in some measure has acted from disaffection” and added that, although he tried to resolve the problem “and have him reconciled, we had not succeeded.”

The Austin Presbytery held its annual meeting at Madison Square in April 1884, but little was recorded of the impressions delegates might have had, if any, of the new church.

Buchanan, in creating Madison Square, had committed to a four-year commission as its pastor. That ended on May 1, 1885.

“In the Providence of God, circumstances now compel me to say to you that our councils together in these relations are soon to end,” he told the congregation in a detailed letter. “One month from today, I lay down my trust in Madison Square Church, and I hereby give you due notice; our official intercourse together has been uniformly pleasant and I am glad to believe that the work committed to our oversight has been successful.”

He told the congregation that they were emerging from the “Iron Age” of the church’s history, “and the hardest work is done. You now enter upon the Silver Age, this under the administration of any good man as your minister, with common prudence and discernment and industry on his part and kindly and active cooperation on your part, will be bright and cheerful and hopeful age or period in its history.”

There was a long list of Buchanan’s accomplishments: Membership now was at 50, a permanent home had been built – Konkle didn’t get his final payment until April of 1885 – “Sabbath School” enrollment was 100 – Major Bash was the superintendent – and there was a “substantial” young people’s group and active Ladies’ Aid Society.

He didn’t leave without one final action, however. He wanted to leave the church free of debt. A trustee named William H.H. McLane held a note from the church for $700. McLane had agreed to send in subscriptions for he and his wife of a $100 each to be subtracted from that loan. Buchanan and other church members came up with another $300. That left $200 and the church treasury was $112.77. A motion from George Brackenridge offered the total treasury to pay the debt and asked the trustees themselves made up the difference of $87.23. The motion passed, the money was raised, and the debt was cancelled.

Buchanan left the pulpit and San Antonio, and his wife Mrs. Mary J. Buchanan, and daughter, Miss Ellen E. Buchanan, left with him. His son, Sidney William Buchanan, however, evidently stayed; his name is signed to the church minutes as secretary well into the 1890s.

With Buchanan’s departure, however, there was no minister. A Rev. Mr. Miller of Detroit was expected on the last Sunday of June, quite probably arriving for an audition for the pulpit (although the minutes of May 31 carefully skirt that issue), but new controversy arose.

It turned out that, on his own, one of the two church elders, George H. Craig, had written to Dr. Ezekiel C. Scudder of Upper Red Hook, New York, to tell him of the opening. Scudder wrote back that he was interested. At the same time, a letter from Miller had been received, talking about his proposed visit. Miller wrote that “as Dr. Scudder had been favorably talked of by some that had been sounded as to a call, he would prefer not to place himself in the field as present as a candidate.”
Elders and trustees quickly voted to write Mr. Miller to tell him that, although he was welcome to visit, no official call had been extended. By June 12, though, it was a moot point. Mr. Miller still was uncertain, and it was resolved that “in view of Mr. Miller’s hesitation to trust himself among us, it will be best to abandon for the present all hope of obtaining him for a pastor.” A Rev. Mr. Wright of Pearsall volunteered to fill the pulpit on June 21, but no one was set for the following Sunday.
Major Bash finally described the situation plainly: He “called attention to the fact that there was really but one name before us, that of Dr. Scudder of Upper Red Hook, N.Y., and, of those who had heard him preach, the majority were well satisfied, and that an informal vote be taken with reference to extending a call to Dr. Scudder.”

The only other motion was one to ask the Board of Trustees to make formal application to the Board of Home Missions for financial assistance during the coming year.

The call was made June 22 and Scudder accepted, but could not be in San Antonio until September. He was installed on Dec. 6, 1885.

The next year brought general improvements to the church building including a fence and the installation of water and gas pipes. Brackenridge offered to pay the price of a good pipe organ and loan it to the church, an offer which was quickly accepted. Later, Brackenridge would donate the “fine instrument” outright. The organ, powered by water, served the congregation until 1909, although paying for “water for the organ” was a complaint during all of those years.

Friday, Aug. 20, 1886, was a grim day for Madison Square. A great storm swept across the city in the afternoon, destroying buildings all over town – and heavily damaging the four-year old church north of the city.
The San Antonio Express described the incident in its Aug. 24 edition. “The great damage done the Madison Square Church is among the many losses sustained by the city as a whole during the great storm of last Friday,” the newspaper wrote. “It happened to be in the track of the heaviest part of the gale, and for a time, it seemed as if a kind Providence meant to spare the church and allow the beautiful steeple to remain – a constant reminder to all of God’s goodness and mercy.

“But, being in a very exposed position, the fury of the storm and fresh gusts seem to gather new strength and destroying power as it rushed madly through the city, lifting and shifting buildings from their foundations. The stone tower of the church swayed for a minute, then fell with a crash, bringing with it the southwest portion of the wall and destroying the entire front.

“Rain then poured in torrents, completely soaking all but one corner of the building, spoiling books, carpets, furniture and bringing down from the ceiling the plaster which destroyed the pulpit. The falling stones destroyed the library of the children’s Sunday School, a library which had been donated to them by a Philadelphia friend. The huge rocks also demolished the fence in front of the church property.”

The membership met the following Friday, Aug. 27, in the front portion of the church and voted to rebuild the church.
“Resolved: That we hereby authorize the trustees of the church to take immediate steps toward rebuilding the broken-down walls and making such repairs as shall be found necessary.

“Resolved: That we pledge ourselves to aid with our means and otherwise to the extent of our ability, to the end that our temple of worship may once more put on her beautiful garment, and thus afford the members of this congregation a suitable place in which to worship.”

In an unusual move, congregation also decided to ask the entire city for contributions. “Resolved, further, that the good people of this city be appealed to without regard to creed, to aid us in reconstructing this beautiful temple” While it was built as an honor to the Most High, it was at the same time an ornamentation to the city, and to this end that a committee of ladies and gentlemen be appointed to solicit subscriptions from our liberal minded citizens in behalf of the good work.”
That committee included the Rev. Dr. Scudder, Maj. Bash, “Mrs. Gen. Stanley,” “Miss Brackenridge” and Scudder’s daughter, Hattie.

And, to make sure that the city didn’t think the church was asking for funds without its own sacrifice, the Express reported, some $402 was raised from “only a score of people who were present at the meeting.”

Members of the board of trustees, meeting the next day, eight days after the storm, read the vote of confidence in them, and started making plans to accomplish that task. The first was to run advertisements in the local paper for three days asking for bids, “with the privilege to reject any and all bids.”

While reconstruction was going on, the congregation would meet in the nearby First Christian Church.
The city – and the Madison Square congregation – must have responded. The financial report of Jan. 26, 1887, showed subscriptions and donations of more than $3,500 in hand. Two days prior to that report, the board of trustees met at the Texas National Bank where Bash told them that, to pay off all bills to that date and entirely complete the church’s reconstruction inside and out, the total needed would be $1,000 more than they had.

Part of the board’s decision contained a choice. Rev. Scudder saw a chance for the church to gain something out of the wreckage. Since the rear wall of the church as already demolished, why, he asked, shouldn’t the board take this opportunity and extend the back wall out another 15 feet or so? The estimate to do this would be about $600.
Major Bash was fairly adamant that there wasn’t enough money to do both that and rebuild the tower and steeple. But he was voted down: The board voted to borrow the money from Texas National Bank, with half to be paid by June 1, and half by Dec. 1, 1887 and 8 percent interest. And the church would be extended and, for now, would have no steeple.

Meanwhile, even a lot of its home in ruins, the work of the church went on. The “Willing Workers” Mission Band of Madison Square – 20 young girls strong – met every two weeks during the year (“with the exception of the3 four summer months”) to raise money. Through “exercises held in the church” and a Lawn Festival, the group raised $100 that “was sent to Siam, to help in the support of Miss Henderson, one of the missionaries.”

After the August storm – “the injury to the church,” the girls worked with the ladies’ groups and came up with another $80. “This was used for putting a new stained glass window in the church and bookracks for the pews,” wrote Hattie Scudder. “The children are interested and enthusiastic in this work, and there are bright prospects for the future.”

Major Bash left Madison Square at this point, presumably because the Army transferred him. The minutes of the trustees certainly sound as if it wasn’t Bash’s idea. Bash handed in his resignation, “stating that he was compelled to do so as he as about to leave the city – permanently,” wrote church secretary S.D. Scudder.

The first meeting on the doorstep of the church in February to vote for his replacement was cancelled when only seven members of the congregation showed up. A subsequent meeting on Feb. 23, 1887, elected C.G. Hubbard as a trustee and H.S. Hostetter Jr. as church clerk in place of Mrs. Bash filling “the vacancy caused by the removal of Maj. Bash (and his wife) from our city.”

As rebuilding of the church continued, funded by donations from both the congregation and the community.

Click here to read Chapter Two of our church history.