History
Norris Wright Cuney
(May 12, 1846 - March 3, 1898) Born in the slave quarters of Sunnyside Plantation (3.2 mi.SE), Cuney displayed such intelligence as a boy that in 1859 he was sent to Wiley Street School for Negroes in Pittsburgh, PA. On returning to Texas after the Civil War, he studied law and began operating a wharf contracting company in Galveston.
History
Old Salem Cemetery
This burial ground originally served the family of T.B. White. His wife Elizabeth (d. 1857) and her father Henry Kirby (d. 1854) are interred here. White sold ten adjoining acres to the Salem Association in 1853 as a site for construction of a masonic lodge hall and academy. The site became a public cemetery after that date. The earliest marked grave is that of Jane McCullen (1788-1851).
History
Plantation Home of Edwin Waller 1800--1883
Plantation Home of Edwin Waller (1800-1883). Member of the consultation in 1835. Signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence. First mayor of the City of Austin. Member of the Secession Convention in 1861. On this property, acquired during the Republic, he resided from 1846 for many years.
History
Prairie View A&M University
Authorized by the Texas legislature in 1876, the "Agricultural and Mechanical College for Colored Youth" was Texas' second state-supported institution of higher learning. As a land grant college, it occupied a 1434-acre former slave plantation. Organized by the Texas A&M Board of Directors, Prairie View has remained a part of the Texas A&M system.
History
Shiloh Baptist Church
On Sept. 21, 1871, at nearby Kirby Chapel Methodist Church, thirteen people with letters of transfer from other congregations banded together as the Shiloh Baptist Church. The Rev. Jesse Tubb and Deacon John M, McGinty assisted with the organization. Ten years later the congregation erected a building of its own at this site, then adjacent to the Pond Creek School, which later was closed.
History
Shiloh Cemetery
In 1881 Thomas Armer deeded land in the Shiloh Community for a Baptist church. He sold an adjacent acre to the church for this cemetery in 1883, and in later years Armer sold more land to the church and to Pond Creek School. The community continued to grow, and by 1908 a larger sanctuary was erected and the cemetery was enlarged to include the Armer family burial ground.
History
Site of Groce's Ferry
Established across the Brazos in 1822 (the river has since changed its course) by Jared E. Groce (1782-1836). Near here the Texas Army camped from March 30 to April 12, 1836. Erected by the State of Texas 1936
History
Site of St. Mary's Catholic Church and Cemetery
The first of many Czech immigrants to settle this area purchased from Galveston developer E.H. Fordtran in 1891. Four Czech families founded St. Mary's Catholic Church in 1892. The first recorded burial here, on land donated by Frank Divin, Sr., was that of Antone Blinka in 1893. The Rev. A.
History
South Texas Baptist College
An ambitious institution chartered by Baptists who formed South Texas Educational Conference about 1895 and in 1898 secured campus site from a local landowner, C.C. Waller. Trustees serving when college opened in fall of 1898 were J.C. McGaughy, Hempsted; James F. Duncan, Houston; C.W. Matthews, Montgomery; W.J. Durham, Richmond; S.A. McCall, Willis; J.E. Boulet, E.J. Matthews, J.L. Miles, and J.
History
Stacye Ann Marlin Morgan
(Feb. 14, 1819 -- March 23, 1894) Survivor of the famous Morgan Massacre; daughter of settler James Marlin, In Falls County, Jan., 1, 1839, Indians killed and scalped several members of the Morgan and Marlin families. Isaac Marlin, 10, ran 7 miles for help. His sister, Stacye Ann, was severely wounded and left by the Indians for dead. However, she recovered, married William J.
History
Union Army P.O.W. Cemetery
Several Confederate military facilities were positioned near Hempsted (2.5 mi. w), an important railroad junction, during the Civil War. Camp Groce (then about 6 mi. e) was a prisoner-of-war stockade established on the plantation of Leonard Waller Groce (1806-1873).
History
Wade Cemetery
This burial ground was established in 1846 by William Wade, a wealthy plantation owner from Mississippi who came to Texas by the 1820s. He purchased considerable acreage from members of Stephen F. Austin's Old Three Hundren Colony. By the 1840s, Wade owned over 11,000 acres of Republic of Texas land.
History
Waller County
Created from Austin and Grimes counties, April 28, and organized Aug. 16, 1873. Named for Edwin Waller (1800-1861), a signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence, 1836; Postmaster General, Texas Republic; First mayor of Austin. Site of rich 1831-1874 Groce plantations, later home of sculptress Elisabet Ney.
History
Wyatt Chapel Community Cemetery
This cemetery is located on land that was originally part of Jared E. Kirby's Alta Vista Plantation. According to oral tradition, the Kirby family set aside this land as a burial site for their slaves, as well as slaves from nearby Liendo Plantation, owned by Kirby's cousin, Leonard Waller Croce.
Elsewhere in Texas
Hear it from the road
Whistlestop tells you this story automatically when you drive past. No searching, no tapping, nothing to ask.
