Mount Zion United Methodist Church and Cemetery
Alto, Cherokee County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Although few written records of this church exist before 1871, it is thought that the congregation was organized just prior to the outbreak of the Civil War. In 1871 the fellowship built a sanctuary at this site during the pastorate of the Rev. Jehu John Allen. The Mount Zion Church has produced several Methodist ministers from its membership. Part of the land deeded to the church by William Collier in 1871, by Wiley P. Cole in 1872, and by H. N. Lusk in 1882 has served the area as a public cemetery. The earliest marked grave, that of Hester Cole, is dated 1874.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Tradition holds that the Mount Zion Methodist congregation gathered on the eve of the Civil War, though few records survive from before 1871, when it raised a sanctuary here under the Rev. Jehu John Allen. Over the years the church sent several of its own into the Methodist ministry. Land deeded by William Collier, Wiley P. Cole, and H. N. Lusk between 1871 and 1882 became a community cemetery whose earliest marked grave dates to 1874.
Why it matters
The church and its burial ground trace how faith communities took root and endured through the Civil War and Reconstruction in rural East Texas.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Jehu John Allen
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Chief Bowles' Last Homesite
Alto vicinity, TX
In 1836 Sam Houston negotiated a treaty recognizing the Cherokees' right to the East Texas lands they occupied, where their leading figure was Duwali — known also as Bowl or Chief Bowles. But after the Texas Revolution the Senate of the new Republic voided the treaty, and in 1839 President Mirabeau B. Lamar ordered the Cherokee expelled. Learning of the order near this site, Bowles rallied his people to resist and was killed at the Battle of the Neches on July 16, 1839.
Isaac Lee
Alto, TX
Born in Georgia in 1788, Isaac Lee lived in Mississippi and Arkansas before reaching Texas in 1828, settling near San Augustine and later Nacogdoches. He took part in the 1832 Battle of Nacogdoches and served in the Army of the Republic of Texas during the fight for independence. In old age he moved to a farm near Alto to live with his daughter, dying there in 1880 at age 92.
Shiloh Methodist Church and Cemetery
Alto, TX
This wooded rise in Cherokee County became sacred ground in 1850 with the burial of a child, and four years later landowners Edwin and Martha Harry set aside an acre for a Methodist church named Shiloh. Worshipers gathered first in a log building, then a frame structure in 1870, and finally the present sanctuary in 1912. The congregation remained active until 1954, its founding trustees still resting in the churchyard.
Berryman Cemetery
Alto, TX
The land around Berryman Cemetery traces back to a 1802 Spanish grant sought by James Dill, who would become the first alcalde of Nacogdoches under Mexican rule. His daughter Helena and her husband, West Point graduate Capt. Henry Berryman, built the plantation home 'Forest Hill' and encouraged farmers to settle the area; after Henry's death in 1859, Helena stayed on and raised thirty orphans alongside her own children. The burial ground that grew here holds the family, former slaves Sally and Alex Berryman, a Civil War veteran and county commissioner, and even a former Cleveland Indians ballplayer.