“The bricks have fallen down, but we will rebuild with dressed stone; the fig trees have been felled, but we will replace them with cedars.” Isaiah 9:10

Early Bell County settlers chopped native cedar trees  to decorate for the yuletide season, but  those scrubby evergreens became symbols of survival and hope in 1913. Christmas trees took on a special meaning of endurance in hard times.

The entire year 1913 was filled with catastrophic floods. By late November, farmers in Bell and Milam counties prepared for even more floods. A more brutal water-whammy hit in early December with unrelenting rains that inundated more than 3,000 square miles of Central Texas. Bell County coped with three solid days of torrents. Suddenly on Dec. 2, a wall of water careened down Nolan Creek in downtown Belton, sweeping away houses.

Enterprising citizens strung a cable across the stream to ship food and medicine to opposite banks. An estimated 12 people drowned, and about 50 Belton families lost their homes.

The tragedy affected everyone throughout the county. By late December, Christ Episcopal in Temple provided leadership and financial resources as joined with other denominations to sponsor citywide  programs and drives to help  stricken families recover.  

Each church erected Christmas trees, either inside their buildings or outside. They invited everyone to come view them and leave donations of food, clothing, toys and money. All of Temple’s churches participated in the drive. The Christmas trees erected throughout   the city symbolized hopes for a brighter, drier new year.

“The Christmas trees were richly decorated and liberally loaded with trinkets for the little tots,” the Temple Daily Telegram reported. “Other churches had a tree for each department of its Sunday school.”

At the same time, Christ Church also took special collections to help flood victims in Lampasas who had been devastated by the same statewide catastrophe.

Hope sprouted evergreen, especially in times of trials and loss to unite flood-ravaged counties.

Patty Benoit

Photo credit: Courtesy Bell County Museum. In the aftermath of the catastrophic December 1913 flood, Belton built a temporary bridge across Nolan Creek so that pedestrians could cross.  Christ Church and other Temple churches joined forces to raise funds to help flood victims.

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