San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
Church camp’s origins tied to WWII escape
An area institution is observing its 75th anniversary this year, counting from the first summer camp held at the camp and conference center of the Episcopal Diocese of West Texas, but there are other milestones to note in the early history of Camp Capers — and some relate to big events in the wider world.
Before the property along the Guadalupe River near Waring was purchased, the diocese headquartered in San Antonio held its big meetings in a variety of locations — St. Mark's Episcopal Church in San Antonio and, for longer events, at Camp Arrowhead near Hunt or the Methodist Encampment, a collection of privately owned cabins near Kerrville. The Presbyterians had Westminster Presbyterian Encampment from 1906 to 1950, when it was succeeded by Mo-Ranch after being purchased in 1949; and Houston's Episcopal Diocese of Texas has had Camp Allen since 1921.
When the Rev. Everett Holland Jones IV became rector of St. Mark's in 1938, he was asked by then-Bishop William Theodotus Capers to become chairman of the diocesan youth committee, he writes in his “Reflections upon the Beginnings and Early Days of the Diocesan Camping Program.”
Having seen the “great influences and strength of the camp program at Camp Allen” during his previous post, he took his new assignment as an opportunity to get one going here. By the following year, Jones had a camp plan, starting with a limited youth summer camp at Arrowhead, then a private girls' camp, “for a short period before their regular season began.”
Meanwhile, a committee was appointed to look for a permanent home for not only a summer camp but year-round meetings.
One of the members, Albert Steves Jr., heard of a 75-acre property about 45 miles from San Antonio with half a mile of
riverfront, the summer home of San Antonio's Negley family. “Several of us went up and visited the area and were quite impressed,” Jones said. “The old building (the summer house) was run down, but we could see the possibilities with the beautiful oak trees and river front and the comparatively isolated location. So we began to move toward getting that property.”
The camp committee took an option on the land to hold it while they sought funding. Then, Jones remembered, “there is a very dramatic story associated with the purchase and securing of that land.”
One of Steves' sons, Maj. Walter Steves II, was a pilot in the Air Force. While the committee was looking around for money to buy the camp, Jones said, “it was reported that Walter was missing from his base in Italy. He had taken a flight and had not returned. For several days, the family and all of us, his friends, were praying earnestly that this young man would be found and rescued.”
Shot down over Austria, as Jones recalled, Walter Steves was captured and taken prisoner by the Germans. During his time in the camp, run by the German Luftwaffe to hold Allied airmen, “he made contact with some of the other prisoners, and they worked out a way by which he could escape and get to a nearby airfield where there were several planes.” There, young Steves figured out how to fly a German plane and flew himself back to his base in Italy.
After only a few weeks,
Jones remembered, word came that the missing pilot was back at his base, safe and sound. “In the joy of that occasion, Mr. Steves came to me and said, ‘The camp property is given by the Steves family as a thank offering for Walter's safe return.' ”
According to Kendall County deed records, members of the Negley family transferred the deed to their property to Albert Steves on Jan. 12, 1945. In turn, Steves granted the deed on July 2, 1945, to an entity then known
as “Episcopal Diocesan Camp.”
The first “Camp Capers Day” in local churches was held
Sept. 16, 1945, when a special offering was collected for a camp building fund.
It soon would be named Camp Capers, after the former bishop who died in 1943 after nearly 30 years in office, during a time of two world wars, unrest along the Mexican border and the Great Depression. During those turbulent times, Capers managed to keep the diocesan schools open, start new congregations and nudge the diocese into becoming fully independent for the first time, no longer having to rely on aid from the national church.
The renovated farmhouse was named Steves Hall.
The new camp would have opened for its first summer session during the summer of 1946, but an epidemic of “an unusual type of polio with a high fatality rate,” according to the San Antonio Light, July 15, 1946, had already closed schools by mid-May of that year, with most of the cases occurring among youngsters 7-17 — the age group of the intended campers. So the first day of the first summer camp session was postponed until June 9, 1947. In the meantime, the grounds served as the site for parish picnics and meetings of men's and women's groups.
By this time, Jones had succeeded Capers as bishop. Albert Steves Jr. died only a few months after arranging the property purchase and transfer. His son, the former POW who had carried out such a daring escape, died at 55 on June 30, 1972, in a collision on Loop 410 near Airport Boulevard.
Over the years, additional land was acquired, and a swimming pool and additional buildings were constructed. Most recently, a master plan from 2008 to 2017 has more than doubled the size of the campus, remodeled the Steves Hall meeting space and added lodges, a riverside amphitheater, a health center and the Lillibridge Dining Hall. The hall is named for the Rt. Rev. Gary Lillilibridge, bishop of the diocese from 2006 to 2017, and a former Camp Capers camper who received the Episcopal Camps and Conference Centers' Hero of Camping Ministry Award in 2015.
True to its original purpose, Camp Capers is open for meetings, retreats and conferences throughout the year, with multiple summer sessions serving more than 1,000 youth ages 8-18 each year. For many years, scholarships have made it more inclusive, and children from the diocese's Good Samaritan Center for community services have attended the camp.
A history of Camp Capers is to be compiled and published by the diocese'shistorical commission, of which this columnist is a member. To contribute memories and photographs for the history and other anniversary activities, send to campcapershistory@gmail.com. A 75th anniversary celebration is planned for the weekend of Oct. 7-9 at the camp.