Rock Hill Cemetery
Brownsboro, Henderson County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Rock Hill Cemetery has served this area since the late 1800s. It is located on land granted to pioneer Alexander J. Clayton, who migrated here from Alabama with his wife, Martha (Carver), and his children in 1854. Clayton, who was born in North Carolina, was a farmer and leader in the Rock Hill community, which developed around the Rock Hill Baptist Church. Residents of Rock Hill, and the nearby settlements of Martin Springs and Pine Hill, were the first to use this cemetery The earliest recorded interment here, of Juno Martin, a young daughter of settlers Robert James and Lenora (Taylor) Martin, dates to 1885. In 1900, one of Alexander Clayton's sons, Rufus, sold property he inherited, including two acres set aside for burials, to his brother Columbus, formally establishing the cemetery. Rufus and Columbus were farmers and school district trustees. Others buried here include farmers, early area settlers, community leaders and veterans of military conflicts. Features in the cemetery include curbing, an enclosed wall of sandstone surrounding a grave, vertical stones and Woodmen of the World markers. Through the years, need for additional land arose; various individuals graciously contributed property to the cemetery in 1979 and 1984. In 1982, relatives of those interred here established the Rock Hill Cemetery Association to maintain the burial ground. Today, Rock Hill Cemetery continues to serve the area and remains as a testament to the early Henderson County pioneers and residents of the Rock Hill, Martin Springs and Pine Hill communities. Historic Texas Cemetery-2006
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Rock Hill Cemetery grew up alongside a farming community that took root in the East Texas woods in the 1850s, when Alexander J. Clayton brought his family west from Alabama to land that clustered around the Rock Hill Baptist Church. The first burial, a settler's young daughter, dates to 1885, and by 1900 two of Clayton's sons had formally set aside acreage for the graveyard. Its sandstone curbing, Woodmen of the World markers, and enclosed graves record the everyday lives of the farmers, veterans, and community leaders who built this corner of Henderson County.
Why it matters
Rural pioneer cemeteries like this one are among the most durable records of how ordinary families settled and sustained the American frontier, long after the communities around them faded.
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Related people
- · Alexander J. Clayton
- · Martha Carver Clayton
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Old Rock Hill Cemetery
Brownsboro, TX
The oldest grave in Old Rock Hill Cemetery is that of Thomas Clark, buried in 1851 on land still in the public domain, six years before A. J. Laymance received title to the surrounding survey. Here rest many of the pioneer families of the Horn Branch and Kickapoo Creek country, including namesake Martin Horn, a War of 1812 veteran and county commissioner, and Civil War soldiers. After bad-weather roads made the site unreachable, a new cemetery was opened nearby, and the last burial here came in 1913.
Cherokee Exodus from Texas
Chandler, TX
Pushed out of their eastern homelands by white settlement, Cherokee people migrated into East Texas and were established in the region by 1820, seeking in vain to secure legal title to their land from Mexico. The uneasy coexistence that followed collapsed in 1839 when Republic of Texas president Mirabeau B. Lamar ordered the tribe expelled. In a two-day battle northwest of here on July 15–16, two Texans and eighteen Cherokees fell, including the aged Chief Bowles, and the survivors were driven north into present-day Oklahoma.
First United Methodist Church
Chandler, TX
This congregation traces its roots to the 1870s, when Methodists gathered at Stillwater along the Upper Athens–Tyler stagecoach road and A. H. Chandler donated land for a church. Chartered through the efforts of local families, it gained its first appointed pastor in 1889 and moved through a succession of buildings as it grew. The Colonial-style church standing today was built in 1953 and later renamed First United Methodist Church of Chandler.
Echols Cemetery on Jennings Mountain
Brownsboro, TX
Atop Jennings Mountain near Brownsboro, this cemetery began as a settlers' burial ground after Richard and Margaret Echols arrived in 1877 to farm. Richard served as a school trustee and credit lender, and after his death in 1905 Margaret founded a Brownsboro bank focused on agricultural lending, becoming a successful businesswoman before deeding the grounds to the community in 1926. Among those resting here is Isaac Anderson Barton, a mason, ginner, and Brownsboro's first mayor.