Ot1r C at/1olic Heritage i11, T e:xas
The projected church in Houston was at a standstill. The people had no money. Conditions in the rural areas were even worse. Because of a late-spring drought and torrential summer rains all crops had failed -the grain for lack of rain at the proper time, and the cotton because of too much rain. The picture was quite dismal. One of the things weighing heavily on Odin's mind after his return was the unexpected request of Father Stehle to leave immediately for Missouri. Odin had been planning to make a hurried visit to the settle- ments on the Lavaca, Navidad, Guadalupe, and San Antonio rivers. He was keenly disappointed when he learned from Stehle that he wanted to be relieved at once from his work in Texas. The strain of frontier life had been too much for the physically delicate Lorrainer. In a letter to Timon, taken by Odin when he went to New Orleans in April, Stehle had bared his heart to the Visitor and had begged to be allowed to return to the quiet life of the seminary for the good of his soul. In vain did Odin plead with Stehle to stay a little longer in order that the Vice Prefect could make his intended tour. Father Nicholas Stehle terminated his seven months' labors in Texas on July 13, 1841, when he left for New Orleans. Odin lost a worker who had been invaluable for his services among the German settlers in South- west Texas and had to postpone temporarily his visitation.1 3 Odin's wsitation of 1841. Neither drought nor floods, neither lack of funds nor illness-not even threats of war-could long keep the indefatigable missionary from visiting his scattered flock. Most of July he spent in Galveston and Houston. He then set out for the Braz_os, where an epidemic was raging. From house to house he went to com- fort the sick. "I said Mass in (the house of] every family and preached every day." Work and hardships were a source of joy to the zealous missionary. "The time I spent among them," he confessed, "was truly the most agreeable that I have experienced since I have come to Texas. Those good people-from the.youngest to the oldest-all came to con- f ession." 14 Two days after he started from the Brazos for Cumings Creek to visit other settlements he contracted malaria, but he went on in his de- termination to reach the Lavaca district. "You cannot imagine what I suffered on the way during the next four days it took me to get to Mr. Brown's," he later reported. Odin tried traveling on alternate days UQdin to Blanc, July 8, 1841; Stehle to Timon, April 12, 1841; Odin to Timon, July 16, 1841, C. A. T. II Odin to Timon, September 30, 1841, C. A. T.
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