Account Book of St. Mathias Church, Records of St. Anthony Catholic Church, Columbus, Texas; Colorado Citizen, September 19, 1878, November 20, 1879, December 11, 1879, December 25, 1879, January 8, 1880, January 22, 1880, April 15, 1880, January 13, 1881; Colorado County Deed Records, Book V, p. 335. Louisa Tait was the widow of Charles William Tait, who died on November 2, 1878. The deed by which she donated the lot to the church was not signed until December 22, 1879, more than two weeks after construction of the building began. The account book cited above states, on page 2 "Rev. Orth estimate of subscription list $1000 actual amount known to be subscribed $1325.50 Rev. Orth left without accounting for the difference" and on page 7 "Rev. Orth left without rendering an account of the money for which he had no receipts---$566.30." It also provides the names of many of the church's early members, most of which, including Burger, Gloger, Hahn, Jünger, Kloth, Laake, Ordner, and Peschke, were clearly German.