Site of Old North Church
Nacogdoches, Nacogdoches County, Texas
Marker Inscription
First known as Union Church as several denominations joined here to worship as early as 1836. Organized in 1838. A small log church was completed that year on ten acres donated by Dr. John M. Sparks. The present structure dates from 1852. In its graveyard rest many of the leading Anglo-American settlers of Nacogdoches County.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Worshippers of several denominations gathered here as early as 1836, giving the congregation its first name, Union Church. Formally organized in 1838, it built a log meetinghouse on ten acres donated by Dr. John M. Sparks; the present structure dates to 1852. Many of the leading Anglo-American settlers of Nacogdoches County lie in its graveyard.
Why it matters
The church and its cemetery mark one of the earliest organized communities of the Anglo-American settlement of East Texas.
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Related people
- · John M. Sparks
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Burrows - Millard House
Millard's Crossing, TX
Elijah M. Burrows, a Confederate veteran, built the back rooms of this Nacogdoches County farmhouse before marrying Molly Millard in 1867, then added the front rooms and porch over the next several years. His family lived in the house for more than a century, until a descendant of the original builder moved and restored it in the 1970s. It stands as a well-preserved example of a Reconstruction-era Texas pioneer home.
The Millard - Lee House
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Built about 1837 during the days of the Republic of Texas, this frame house served Nacogdoches merchant and deputy postmaster Robert F. Millard as both a family home and, at times, a boardinghouse. The blacksmith and county official David Lee bought it in 1859, and it stayed in the Lee family for a full century. In 1970 it was moved and restored at Millard's Crossing, the settlement named for its builder's family.
Nacogdoches County
Nacogdoches, TX
Long home to the Nacogdoches Indians, this East Texas region saw Spanish settlement begin in 1716, though the presence was repeatedly abandoned and re-established amid French encroachment. The town of Nacogdoches was founded in 1779, and the area became the scene of the Fredonian Rebellion in 1827. Organized as a municipality under Mexico in 1832, it was made a Texas county in 1836.
Stephen Fuller Austin
Nacogdoches, TX
Stephen Fuller Austin inherited a colossal task when his father Moses died in 1821: settling hundreds of families in Spanish—then Mexican—Texas. Born on the Virginia frontier and schooled across the young United States, Austin proved a shrewd administrator, guiding the original "Old Three Hundred" families and hundreds more into southeast Texas. Imprisoned in Mexico after pressing for Texas statehood, he returned to help win independence and served as the new Republic's first secretary of state.