Indian Creek Baptist Church and Cemetery
Leonard, Fannin County, Texas
Marker Inscription
The oldest readable gravestone in this burial ground bears the date 1870, four years before the founding of the Indian Creek Baptist Church. Worship services were first held in a schoolhouse 1/4 mile south of this site. Dock Holcomb donated this property adjacent to the cemetery, and a church building was completed in 1882 using lumber hauled by wagon from Jefferson. For over a century the burial ground was under the direct care of the congregation. An annual cemetery decoration day was begun in 1900. Historic Texas Cemetery medallion attached to post. (HTC designation 2004)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
The oldest legible stone in this burial ground dates to 1870, four years before the Indian Creek Baptist Church was founded in a schoolhouse a quarter-mile away. In 1882 Dock Holcomb donated land beside the cemetery, and a congregation raised a church from lumber hauled by wagon all the way from Jefferson. For more than a century the church tended the graves, and an annual decoration day begun in 1900 kept the community's memory alive.
Why it matters
The linked church and cemetery show how faith and remembrance bound together the pioneer farming communities of North Texas.
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Related people
- · Dock Holcomb
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
East Shady Grove Baptist Church
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Eighteen members meeting in a nearby schoolhouse organized East Shady Grove Baptist Church in October 1884, calling T. P. Reece as the first of many pastors. A Sunday school followed in early 1885, and the congregation dedicated its permanent church building in 1911. The steady growth mirrors the maturing of rural Fannin County.
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