History
Mooreville Cemetery
Irishman Robert Moore was the first person to settle permanently in this area. Arriving in the 1850s, he opened a general store on top of a hill south of Cow Bayou. By 1859 several other families lived here and the community became known as Mooreville. Confederate veteran Edward McCullough (1834-1902) came to Morreville in 1865 and later purchased land that included this site.
History
Old Settlers and Veterans Association of Falls County
Some 75 years after pioneers opened this region, the "Old Settlers Association of Falls County" was organized on July 4, 1908. In 1909, the Willis L. Lang Camp of Confederate veterans and the settlers held a joint reunion. Merging later, they chartered the "Old Settlers and Confederate Veterans Association of Falls County" in 1911.
History
Phillips Cemetery
Ezekial Thomas Phillips (1830-1905), a Civil War veteran, moved his family to Falls County in 1869. His son Robert M. Phillips (b. 1857) died in a shooting accident on March 18, 1883, a short time before his wedding. He was buried on this tract, which was to have been a wedding gift from his father.
History
Powell-Tull Cemetery
John Powell (1826-1889) was the first to be interred here in 1889. It was this event that caused the Powell family to set aside this land as a burial ground that was to serve them, as well as the Bolton, Busby, Greer, McRae, Sims, Suggs, Sylvester, Taylor and Tull families.
History
Sacred Heart Catholic Church
In the early twentieth century, the Rev. B.C. Pfiffner came from Marlin (12 mi. NE) once a month to hold Mass for seven local German Catholic families. In May 1905, the parish acquired land at this site for the locaion of Lott's first Catholic church. The following year, members formally dedicated the new sanctuary and began worshipping here as Sacred Heart Catholic Church, with the Rev.
History
Salem Lutheran Church
Salem Lutheran Church Organized November 24, 1901, in the Hamilton schoolhouse, this congregation began with 17 charter members, many of whom had come from the Welcome community in Austin County. The Rev. W. Utesch, who also was from Welcome, provided guidance and leadership at that first gathering. The congregation of Salem Evangelical Lutheran Church held monthly services in its first years.
History
Sarahville de Viesca, Site of Colonial Capital
Founded 1834 by Sterling C. Robertson, colonizer of a 100 by 200-mile area embracing all or part of 30 later Texas counties. Situated near falls of Brazos River, where over a stony ford passed much traffic between east and southwest Texas, this was Robertson Colony capital. An important Sarahville site was land office, where settlers applied for their titles.
History
Silvia King
Born in Morocco, Silvia King (also written as Sylvia King) was well into adulthood and married with three children when she was kidnapped and brought to Bordeaux, France by slave traders. King recalled receiving drugged coffee before she was forced into the bottom of a ship with other enslaved Africans for the Middle Passage to New Orleans.
History
Site of the Home of George Morgan
400 yards northeast is the site of the home of George Morgan. Indians attacking the house on the night of Jan. 1, 1839 killed George Morgan, Mrs. George Morgan, Mrs. Jackson Morgan, Miss Adeline Marlin.
History
Site of Wilson School
The Wilson School that once stood here traced its history to the 1890s, when entrepreneur William Anderson Barclay deeded one acre of land for a schoolhouse. Typical of many rural schools in Texas in the late nineteenth century, the Wilson School was functional in design. Built of clapboard construction and topped with a shingle roof, the building contained three rooms.
History
St. Mary's Cemetery
St. Mary's Cemetery was founded in 1883 by German families who had recently settled in the area and named their community "Westphalia," after their German home province. Casper Hoelscher, Frank Wunsch, Theodore Rabroker, J.G.
History
Trinity Lutheran Church
The first Lutheran worship service in this area of Falls County was conducted in 1882 by a traveling missionary, The Rev. John J. Trinklein. Speaking to a largely German congregation, he encouraged the organization of a Lutheran church. By June 1883 Trinity Lutheran Church was established, and the members had purchased four acres of land and had erected a chapel.
History
Union Cemetery
Four acres of land were donated for Union Cemetery by early settlers Joseph Marcus Jackson and his wife Eleanor Thompson Jackson. Named Union Cemetery because it serves all of the communities around Durango, the earliest recorded burial was that of infant Mary Braswell in 1836.
History
Westphalia Little School
Plans for the establishment of a school to serve the German Catholic community of Westphalia began soon after the earliest settlers arrived here in 1879. Under the direction of the first trustees, Anton Jansing, Joseph Hoelscher,and Stanislaus Rollewitz, the school was set up to provide parochial and public instruction. The Westphalia Little School opened in 1884. Early teachers were J. H.
Elsewhere in Texas
Hear it from the road
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