Architecture
Newton-Norris House
Charles M. and Elizabeth Aldrich Newton had this house built in 1899, but lived in it only five years. It was acquired by Willis A. and Alice Parker Norris in 1909, and in 1838, in accordance with Alice's will, the house became a residence for retired Methodist ministers. It served that purpose until 1970.
History
Oakland
Named for the oak trees in the vicinity, Oakland was a rural settlement in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. A townsite was never platted, and the community was composed of scattered homes between the Trinity River and Crockett. A church, cotton gin, and school were in operation for a brief time. Among the early settlers of the area were Wilson E.
History
Old Glover Cemetery
This cemetery originally served pioneer residents of the Glover Community, which began about 1879. The earliest burial was that of Grady Holcomb (1895-96), the infant son of Henry and Amanda Holcomb. Land for the burial ground, a church, and a school was deeded by Arch Sloan in 1895. The schoolhouse, located on the site of the present tabernacle, was used until 1915.
History
Original Site of the Joseph R. Rice Log Cabin
Joseph Redmond Rice (1805-1866) and his wife, Willie Masters Rice (1809-1881), natives of Tennessee and Kentucky, built a one-room log cabin on this site in 1828. Rice's brothers and his father-in-law, Jacob Masters, probably helped with the building. The men cut logs in the woods, and Willie Rice drove a team that snaked them to the clearing for the house raising.
History
Parker Cemetery
Willis Parker arrived in this area from North Carolina in the 1850s. Many of his relatives later joined him in Texas. Upon Willis Parker's death about 1857, his parents Ralph R. and Sarah C. Hodge Parker set aside land on their farm for a cemetery. Although Willis Parker's grave is believed to be the oldest here, his father's grave bears the earliest tombstone (1861).
History
Parker Cemetery
Alabama native Joseph A. (also Joe, Jo or Josephus) Parker settled in East Texas by 1847. In October of that year, he wed Nancy Ann Allen in Cherokee County. The Parkers were living in Houston County by 1850, and the 1860 census listed them as having six children. Residents of the Jones Schoolhouse Community, the family used this site as a cemetery for their friends and relatives.
Architecture
Patton-Buchanan Building
Crockett merchant William Monroe Patton (1855-1915) built this commercial structure about 1903. It was the fourth of six buildings he constructed on what became known as the Patton Block and is the only one that retains its original Mesker Bros. pressed metal storefront.
History
Pine Springs Campground
A favorite campsite of Tejas Indians in the years before European settlers arrived, this location was used in turn by explorers, Spanish missionaries, traders and armies. Travelers were attracted by abundant game, including deer and wild turkey, and fresh water flowed from springs 300 feet from El Camino Real (the King's Highway).
History
Pioneer Settlers of Coltharp
One of Houston County's important early communities, Coltharp was settled at this site in the 1850s. Pioneer settlers included Eli and Eliza Jane Coltharp, William and Rhodey Conner, Jacob and Rhoda Gregg, Silas and Sarah Gregg, L.B. (Brice) and Frances Conner John, and Thomas J. Payne. A frame schoolhouse and masonic lodge hall, a church, and numerous stores and houses once stood at this site.
History
Plain Community
Led by members of the Conner, McKinney and Drennan families, this East Texas farming community was permanently settled in the 1850s. Named for the "Plain Folks" who lived here, the settlement included a school, church, grist mill, cotton gin, post office and this cemetery, which began in the mid-1850s on the Frederick Conner family land.
History
Porter Springs Community and Cemetery
Several Republic of Texas land grants were acquired in this area during the 1830s. Elisha Clapp's burial in a nearby cemetery (1 mile SE) in 1856 and other census records indicate area settlement in the 1850s. The community was originally called Porter's Spring for early settler James M. Porter and naturally occurring area springs. In 1862 Gould's Confederate Battalion was organized here.
History
Post Oak School
A lasting reminder of the importance of educational institutions in the heart of rural East Texas, Post Oak School held its first classes in September 1892 on this site, on property then owned by Stephen Box. It served African-American students in the community and the surrounding area for more than 60 years. Built adjacent to the Mt.
History
Randolph Community
(1 mile north) In 1838, Cyrus Halbert Randolph (1817-1889) established the Randolph community on the San Felipe de Austin-Nacogdoches mail route. Randolph, a member of the Snively Expedition, served as Houston County justice of the peace, coroner, chief justice, and sheriff, as well as state legislator and treasurer.
History
Ratcliff
About 1875, a 32-wagon train of settlers came here from Georgia. Jess H. Ratcliff (1844-1920) built a sawmill about 1855, drawing more people. Post office opened 1889, with Ratcliff as postmaster, and town soon had several stores. Professional men included Drs. H.L. McCall and Jake Jackson. Sold 1901 to Louisiana and Texas Lumber Co., then to Central Coal and Coke Co.
History
Ratcliff CCC Camp
J.H. Ratcliff's 1880s sawmill and village here gave way to major timber industry operations that by the early 1930s had decimated Houston County's densest virgin forest. As part of federal efforts to restore the nation's natural resources, Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) Camp F-4-T was built at this site in 1933-34, and the Davy Crockett National Forest was established in this area in 1935.
History
Read's Opening
The wide open expanse of land in this area was known to travelers in the 19th Century as an accessible route to and from the Trinity River. A landmark of the early landscape in Houston County, the prairie became known as Read's Opening after Robert Newton and Susan Asbury Moore Read moved here from Arkansas by 1850.
History
Reynard Community
Pioneer settlers began arriving in this area in the late 1830s. By the late 1850s a rural community known as Trinity Chapel had built up. Thomas Jefferson Fox and his family established a farm here in the late 1880s. When a post office was opened in 1901 the community was named Reynard (French for fox).
History
Rice Cemetery
Joseph Redmond Rice (1805-1866) and his wife Wille Masters Rice (1809-1881) erected a log cabin across the San Antonio Road from this site in 1828. They probably established this family burial ground after the deaths of their infant twins about 1830. The high rate of infant mortality accounts for numerous burials, including four children of the Rices' daughter Sarah (Mrs.
History
Richard (Dick) King and Rachel Ellis King
Richard (Dick) King (July 4, 1849 -- September 28, 1948) and Rachel Ellis (March 20, 1849 -- February 1, 1930), both born into slavery in Alabama, were brought to this area prior to the Civil War. Married in 1869, they were the parents of 10 children, 9 of whom lived to adulthood. Respected members of the Hopewell Community, the Kings operated a grist mill, a syrup mill, and a commissary.
History
Robert S. Patton Family Cemetery
Arriving in Texas in December 1834, Robert S. Patton (1816-1864) received a land grant and was among Houston County's earliest settlers. He married Louisa J. Conner (1827-1878) in 1838. They were the parents of thirteen children, six of whom are buried in this family graveyard. The oldest marked grave is that of W.W. Warren (1801-1860), a relative of Louisa Patton.
History
Rudd Crawford Spinks
(Feb. 13, 1857 -- Nov. 24, 1938) Native Texan Rudd Crawford Spinks came to Houston County in 1878. The owner of a jewelry and music store in Crockett, he became a farmer, freighter, cotton gin and sawmill operator and a prominent land owner. In addition, he built several area homes and bred registered livestock.
History
Samuel Fisher Tenney
(March 26, 1840 -- July 2, 1926) Civil War veteran Samuel Fisher Tenney, a Georgia native, graduated from the University of Georgia and from a South Carolina seminary in 1868. He moved to Crockett two years later, following a pastorate in Marshall, Texas. For 54 years Tenney served here as pastor of the First Presbyterian Church.
History
San Pedro Community
In the 1830s immigrants from the southeastern U.S. settled here along San Pedro Creek and the stage route to nearby Rusk. A stage stop and general store established by Joel W. Stowe became site of the San Pedro post office in 1842. Settlers made molasses from native ribbon cane, grew cotton and corn, and milled lumber.
History
Site of Old Town and Post Office of Weldon
In 1850 William Morrow built a cotton gin about a mile north of here, opening a settlement. An early post office in the vicinity was renamed Weldon in 1869, for Weldon Jones Murchison (1838-99), a local pioneer merchant. Local economy was based on cotton and timber. Trains hauled logs over a tram road to mills in Trinity (15 miles east) by 1900.
History
Site of Old Town of Augusta
Settled 1821 by frontiersman Daniel McLean and brother-in-law John Sheridan. Aldrich, Davis, Edens, Kyle, Maden and Wilson families soon located here also. Indian troubles included Edens-Madden Massacre and killings of McLean and Sheridan during the 1830s. Ioni (later Augusta) Lodge No. 93, A.F.&A.M., was organized in 1852.
Elsewhere in Texas
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