Clover Hill Cemetery
Quitman, Wood County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Families from Georgia and Alabama settled this land in 1856. The next year they chose this hill which was covered with yellow clover for construction of the Clover Hill Baptist Church. In 1868 "Little Buddy," son of G. H. and Sallie Pogue, was the first burial in this community cemetery. Soon a stranger died of smallpox and was interred here. The oldest marked gravestone is that of Martha Benton (1840-1862). She was buried, according to custom, near her home and later the family moved the headstone here. In 1926 the cemetery association was organized. (1979)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Families from Georgia and Alabama put down roots on this land in 1856, and the next year chose a hill blanketed in yellow clover for their Baptist church. The community cemetery began in 1868 with the burial of a child, soon followed by a stranger who died of smallpox. Older headstones, like that of Martha Benton, were moved here as families gathered their dead into one hallowed ground.
Why it matters
Clover Hill captures the rhythm of antebellum southern migration into Texas and how a church and burial ground could become the enduring anchor of a rural community.
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Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Rock Hill Baptist Church
Quitman, TX
Rock Hill Baptist Church was organized in 1870 in a schoolhouse on Coke Road, in the Reconstruction-era settlement of Wood County, before building its first sanctuary in 1892. Its charter members and early pastors are remembered by name, and its congregation held a steady membership of around 170 into the twentieth century. The marker preserves the quiet endurance of a rural East Texas congregation.
First Baptist Church of Quitman
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Organized on November 16, 1850 by pioneer settlers in a meeting moderated by a Cumberland Presbyterian minister, this was one of the earliest churches in Wood County. Early worship happened in homes and open air before shared frame buildings rose with the Masons, and its 1855 bell is preserved as a relic. The church counts among its own James Stephen Hogg, the first native-born governor of Texas, and once welcomed the renowned Dallas preacher George W. Truett to its pulpit.
Wood County Courthouse
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When the Texas legislature created Wood County in 1850, it named Quitman the county seat, which began governing from a humble log courthouse. Fire repeatedly claimed its successors — a frame structure in 1878 and F.E. Ruffini's building in 1924 — before the present Classical Revival courthouse rose with its columned temple front and pedimented entablature. It has anchored the county square ever since.
J. H. Jones and the Old Settlers Reunion Grounds
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An Alabama native who reached Texas in 1877, J.H. Jones taught school, won election as Wood County clerk, and prospered as a Quitman merchant. In 1902 he gave this land to the Old Settlers of Wood County Association, whose members gathered each year to honor the region's pioneers. Save for a pause during World War I, the homecoming reunions continued here, and in 1952 the grounds passed to the Governor Hogg Shrine State Park.