Historical Markers in Limestone County
Texas·60 places·Page 2 of 3
Architecture
L. P. Smith House
Built 1876 by Mexia merchant and banker Lewis Philip Smith and his second wife, Mattie J. Beeson Smith. Home site cost $400 in gold in 1868. House has cedar shingle roof, cedar post foundations; 12-light windows; old fashioned weatherboard siding; 6-inch board floors. Square nails used in structure. Smith, a Mason and Methodist, was a leader in the town; died at 39, in 1886.
History
Lost Prairie Cemetery and Church
Established by volunteers in 1846; sponsoring group formed about 1900. According to legend, a man lost in the surrounding woods named the site when he stumbled onto the prairie. The graves of many early settlers include Azariah G. Moore, a soldier in the Texas War for Independence. First officials of the cemetery association were Jeff Rambo, chairman, and Beulah Holloway, secretary.
History
McKenzie Cemetery
The area surrounding this graveyard was known as McKenzie Prairie, named for Joseph S. McKenzie and his family who settled her in 1853. The oldest grave here is that of Elizabeth Etemon and her infant daughter, who died while traveling through the area in 1865. The McKenzies set aside land for the burial.
History
Mexia Oil Boom
One of great free-wheeling oil booms of America before proration was enforced. Population in Mexia increased from 4,000 to 50,000 within days after oil discovery in 1920 at Rogers No. 1 Well, located 1.6 miles west of this marker, just off FM Road 1633 Earlier (in 1912), Blake Smith and other Mexia men had brought in a gas field.
History
Miss Rogers' Music Room
Built opposite public school, for Laura T. Rogers, who (1880-1920) taught piano and choral music from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., 6 days a week, 8 months in year. Had 4 pianos used all day; 8 pupils often played in union. Auditorium, with overflow seating in yard, staged recitals and dramas. A church organist-choir director 35 years, Miss Rogers kindled cultural interests in pupils of two generations.
History
Mount Calm Cemetery
Settlers began arriving in this part of Limestone County in the 1850s. Soon Mount Calm community developed with a Masonic Lodge, stores, post office, school, and churches. James Samuel Kimmel, a pioneer settler, donated land for this cemetery, and the first marked grave is dated 1870. In 1881, when the Texas & St.
History
Mrs. Martha Rogers
(about 1795 to about 1865) According to family tradition, Martha Rogers was the daugther of United States Army General James Wilkinson (1757-1825) and his wife Ann Biddle of Philadelphia. When she married Benjamin Rogers (b. 1781) in Perry County, Ala., in 1809, Martha was disinherited. She and her husband had ten children. As a widow she moved to TX in 1847 with sons Allen Jefferson, M.C.
History
Mrs. Mary E. Reeves
(October 28, 1828 - January 7, 1917) Born in Georgia, a daughter of Mr. & Mrs. Ben Hawkins, Mary Ellephan Hawkins was married in 1847 in Alabama to William Jay Reeves. The couple and their young children moved to Texas about 1855. While her husband served in Company F, 15th Texas Cavalry, Sweet Regiment during the Civil War, Mary E. Reeves cared for the family at home.
Industry & Science
Munger Community
In 1854, Ten Labors of Land (1770 acres) were surveyed in Limestone County for Jonathan Scott. In 1872, Henry Martin Munger moved his family from Rutersville (Fayette Co.) To Mexia. There he opened a lumberyard, planing mill, flour mill, grist mill and cotton gin. In 1876, Munger began to buy up and fence the entire Scott survey for a major cotton farm.
History
Oakes Cemetery
This cemetery began with the burials of Mary C. Justice (d. 1861) and Roland Pair (d. 1865). It is located on land later owned by John Collins Oakes and his wife Winnie (Radford), who migrated here from Perry County, Alabama in the years following the Civil War with their family and prospered as landowners and farmers. John Oakes died in 1876, and in 1891, Winnie formally set aside the graveyard.
History
Odds Community
The Odds Community, a dispersed agricultural settlement, was founded upon the arrival of the David Barron family circa 1854. Additional settlers soon arrived in the area, including the John Wilford Erskine family, R.A. McAllister and the William Criswell family.
History
Old Sandy Creek Cemetery
Following Emancipation in 1865, many former Limestone County slaves established their own homes. Those settling in this area included Sawney Henry and Davey Medlock, founders of Sandy M.E. Church and Sandy community. This site served as the early burial ground for the agricultural settlement, also known as Oak Grove.
History
Old Springfield
Named for the large spring on townsite donated Jan. 6, 1838, by Moses Herrin, who gave 4 lots to any person agreeing to settle in the town. 12 families later in 1838 were forced out by Indian hostility. Post office was established in 1846. When Limestone County was created April 11, 1846, Springfield-- its only town of any size-- became county seat.
History
Old Springfield Cemetery
Established as a 10-acre community burial ground in town plat dedicated Jan. 6, 1838, by Moses Herrin. Earliest graves probably never had stone markers because of primitive frontier living conditions. It is recorded that 12 families were driven out of Springfield late in 1838 by Indian hostilities; the town's growth was halted materially until 1846. Oldest tombstone is for an infant who died Oct.
History
Old Union Community
Originally known as Ferguson Prairie, this settlement grew up around the property of Joseph and Hannah Ferguson who settled here about 1847. Listed on early maps it was named Ivanhoe, the community name changed following the establishment of a Union Church in 1877. The first sanctuary, a one-room structure, was also used as a community center and schoolhouse.
History
One Half Mile North to the Site Once Occupied by Trinity University
Established by the Brazos Synod of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. Opened its doors as a co-educational institution September 23, 1869. Chartered August 13, 1870. Included schools of law and theology. Removed in 1902 to Waxahachie.
History
Origin of the Texas State Teachers Association
The first statewide teacher association in Texas had its beginnings in two regional teachers organizations. The North Texas Education Association was begun in Dallas in 1877. Teachers in central Texas met in Austin in 1879, formed the Austin Teachers Association, and made plans to meet the next year with the north Texas group to create a statewide organization.
History
Personville
Behind this marker is town site of Personville, begun in 1854 by Benjamin D. Person, Sr. 1855 postmaster was Wm. Person. Grayson Masonic Lodge 265, chartered 1861, demised 1889. Nelleva cut-off, built in 1906 was abandoned 1933. J. D. Hudson was first teacher in district school, 1908. By 1915 had blacksmith shop, lumber yard, bank, hotel, 12 mercantiles, two drugstores, three doctors. Dr. G. H.
History
Plummer Cemetery
Luther Thomas Martin (L.T.M.) Plummer and his wife Rachel (Parker) arrived in what is now Limestone County in 1834. They received a Mexican land grant for 3,321 acres in this area the next year. In 1836, Rachel, her son James, and her cousin Cynthia Ann Parker were kidnapped by Comanches. After Rachel was returned in 1838, she and L. T. M.
History
Prairie Hill Cemetery
Prairie Hill Baptist Church members built a sanctuary here in 1890 on 3 acres donated by J. R. and Medora Leathers. A portion of the acreage near the sanctuary was set aside in 1894 to established this community cemetery. The first recorded burial was that of Eula Jane Howard on June 29, 1894.
History
Robert M. Love
One of armed men who helped seat 14th State Legislature in 1873 when incumbent Gov. E. J. Davis contested Richard Coke's election. A member of the Confederate army, he fought throughout the Civil War in Ross' brigade. Became Limestone County deputy sheriff, 1872; elected sheriff, 1884. President, Texas Sheriff's Association for 5 years. Also served as U. S. Marshall.
Military
Sanders Walker
A veteran of the Texas War for Independence, 1835-1836. Erected by the State of Texas, 1962
History
Sansom/Wedgman Cemetery
Located on a tributary of the Navasota River known as Running Branch, this cemetery has been in use since the days of Reconstruction in Texas. Soon after the end of the Civil War, a group of settlers, including Dr. J. L. Sansom, P. K. Mckenzie, and Allen Goodwin, came to this area from Mississippi and built a church and school. The community came to be called Mount Joy. Dr.
History
Seth H. Bates
Born May 26, 1811. An early Ranger in the Texas war for Independence. Member Captain Seale's Company, 1835-1836, that was organized "agreeable to order from the Council of Texas." Died August 17, 1886. Erected by the State of Texas, 1962
History
Sion Roberts
Served in the Texas War for Independence; Veteran of San Jacinto. Erected by the State of Texas, 1962
Elsewhere in Texas
Hear it from the road
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