Rev. Joseph W. Tays - El Paso, Texas
Reverendo Joseph W. Tays - El Paso, Tejas
Rev. Joseph W. Tays - El Paso, Texas
Reverend Joseph Tays, an Episcopal missionary who founded El Paso's first Protestant church, arrived in El Paso in 1870, a widower with two boys. C. L. Sonnichsen records the story that a month after he began his mission in El Paso, Tays sent word to Austin that he was "doing his best." Tays was learning Spanish and at least one saloon keeper had closed his doors and found another vocation because of him. He not only preached and taught, he worked in real estate and served the county as surveyor. Tays laid the cornerstone of the first St. Clement's Episcopal Church on Christmas day in 1881. Local Historian and Author Leon Metz writes that after having conducted the funeral of a smallpox victim, Tays contracted the dreaded disease himself and died after a week's suffering. Late in the evening of November 21, two men from the city wrapped Parson Tay's body in a sheet and delivered it quickly to Concordia. He was buried without ceremony in the middle of the night during a violent rain storm. The man who had helped so many in early El Paso was buried with only two grave diggers present. (per http://www.epcounty.com/history/concordia.htm)
Report this entry
More from the same community-collection
Olga Bernstein Kohlberg Ceremony
The Dedication Ceremony honoring Olga Bernstein Kohlberg with an ...
Olga Bernstein Kohlberg Ceremony
The Dedication Ceremony honoring Olga Bernstein Kohlberg with an ...
Jackie Morgan-Tomko, Woman's Club President, El Paso, TX 2015
Jackie Morgan-Tomko, president of the Woman's Club of El Paso is ...
Olga Bernstein Kohlberg Ceremony - El Paso, Texas
The image shows the announcement as entering the Woman's Club of ...
Olga Bernstein Kohlberg Ceremony - El Paso, Texas
Leslie Bergloff, Site Manager of Magoffin Home State Historic ...
Olga Bernstein Kohlberg Ceremony - El Paso, Texas
Mary Railey, past president of the Woman's Club of El Paso, was ...
Olga Bernstein Kohlberg Ceremony
Eleanor Goodman speaks at a dedication honoring her grandmother, ...
Olga Bernstein Kohlberg Ceremony
Jackie Morgan-Tomko, President Of the WCOEP, and Eleanor Goodman ...