Rural Shade Baptist Church
Cleveland, Liberty County, Texas
Marker Inscription
At least 14 charter members founded this church in the Tarkington's Prairie community about 1870. Land was deeded in 1878 for a combination Baptist church and Masonic Hall structure. That year a two-story building was erected, with the second floor housing the Masonic Lodge and the church on the first floor. Many early church members were also active in the Lodge. D. D. Forman was a master Mason and the first church pastor from 1874 to 1876 and again in 1882. In the early years pastors were elected from the congregation members. Worship services were held once or twice a month, usually on Saturdays. "Meeting of Days," later called revivals, were held at the church building. In 1908 the Ryan Cemetery was deeded to the Rural Shade Baptist Church by Washington Berry. Located five miles south, the church held ownership to the land until 1989, when it was transferred to the Ryan Cemetery Association. Since its founding, the congregation has continuously supported a variety of Christian programs for its members, as well as outreach mission work in domestic and foreign fields.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
At least fourteen charter members founded this church in the Tarkington's Prairie community around 1870, and in 1878 raised a two-story building that shared its purpose: a Baptist congregation below and a Masonic lodge above, with many members belonging to both. Early pastors, elected from the congregation, preached once or twice a month, often on Saturdays, and hosted the revivals then known as "meeting of days." The church long held the nearby Ryan Cemetery, deeded to it in 1908, until passing it to a cemetery association in 1989.
Why it matters
The dual church-and-lodge building captures how rural Reconstruction-era Texans pooled scarce resources, letting a single structure serve as a community's spiritual and fraternal center.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · D.D. Forman
- · Washington Berry
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Burton B. Tarkington
Cleveland, TX
Burton B. Tarkington and his wife Sarah left Indiana in the mid-1820s for the Mexican state of Coahuila, settling west of the Trinity River and building a ranch and farm on land that came to bear their name. Family tradition holds they fled in 1836 as Santa Anna's army advanced toward San Jacinto. After independence, the new Republic granted Tarkington more than 4,600 acres, and he later served in the Texas Militia and as a county commissioner.
McGinnis Cemetery
Tarkington, TX
Established in 1861, McGinnis Cemetery began at the very outset of the Civil War, when the farming families of rural Liberty County were being drawn into the conflict that would reshape Texas. Frontier cemeteries of this era often gathered pioneer settlers and the war generation side by side. It carries a Historic Texas Cemetery designation.
Ryan Cemetery
Cleveland, TX
Also called Ryan's Graveyard, this burial ground has served the ranching and farming community of Tarkington Prairie since at least the 1860s, its earliest marked grave belonging to a ten-year-old boy in 1863. It takes its name from Irish immigrant John Jacob Ryan, a prosperous storekeeper found shot dead on the nearby road in 1873 in a murder whose accused killers were acquitted. Veterans reaching back to the Texas Revolution and the Civil War, early Baptist church members, and Masonic lodge founders all rest here, drawing descendants to an annual memorial service.
John Cherry
Cleveland, TX
John Cherry came to Texas from Ohio as a boy in 1818 and settled near a Coushatta village in the southeast of the future state. He fought in the Texas War for Independence in 1836 and, commissioned by President Sam Houston in 1838, served as interpreter during a treaty parley with the Coushatta. A recipient of two Texas land grants, he raised a large family across three marriages before his death in 1891.