Catholic life in Live Oak County included services at Gussettville by 1869 and the formal establishment of St. Joseph's Church in 1878. St. Joseph's was first a mission of San Patricio, and its membership reflected Irish, Polish, Moravian, and Mexican immigrants and heritage. In 1915 Father Harold Purcell came to George West to pastor a mission, and George Washington West deeded land to the Most Reverend Paul J. Nussbaum, Bishop of Corpus Christi, for a Catholic church. A hurricane in August 1916 destroyed the unfinished walls, forcing the two-story mission revival style building to be rebuilt from the foundation. When the building was completed in 1918, the congregation took the name St. George for both the 4th century martyr and George W. West, and religious instruction for parish children began. Thelma Lindholm, one of the first teachers, later served as church historian and chronicled the history of St. George's priesthoods and missions. In the 1920s, St. Joseph's at Gussettville and Sacred Heart at Three Rivers became missions of St. George. Reverend William H. Oberste urged the need for a parish cemetery, the Chlebek family donated land, and Bernard Katzfey was the first burial there. A new church building was dedicated at Christmas Mass in 1950, the old building became a parish hall, and after Hurricane Celia destroyed it in 1970, it was replaced in 1979. For more than a century, St. George Catholic Church has continued its fellowship, faith, service, and support in Live Oak County.