The early Gonzales County settlement of Pilgrim was named in honor of Thomas J. Pilgrim, a noted area educator who had received a Republic of Texas land grant here in 1838. In 1881 residents of the pioneer community established a Union Sunday School in a nearby schoolhouse (1.5 miles S). Early members of the congregation represented the Presbyterian, Baptist, Methodist and Quaker faiths. On November 23, 1883, several Union Church members formed this congregation under the direction of the Rev. J. J. Hodges of Wrightsboro. Begun as a Cumberland Presbyterian Fellowship with the congregational name of Pilgrim Lake, it was an early member of the Guadalupe Presbytery of San Antonio and Austin. A sanctuary was built here in 1886 on land donated by Crawford Burnett. Church members were assisted by local residents in construction and furnishing the building, which became the site of many early camp meetings and summer revivals. Despite a declining area population, the Pilgrim Presbyterian Church has remained active and now serves as a focal point of the surrounding rural region and as a reminder of the pioneer settlers whose descendants still live here.
