Stony Point Church and Cemetery
Melissa, Collin County, Texas
Marker Inscription
In the 1870s and 1880s the pioneer settlement of Stony Point was a thriving agricultural community with a cotton gin, general store, gristmill, molasses mill and school. On August 17, 1878, area residents formed the Stony Point Baptist Church. Five years later A.J. Scribner and R.N. Coffey donated land to the church which now comprises part of the burial ground. In 1887 J.C. and Elizabeth Price deeded property for the first sanctuary. Destroyed by lightning in 1926, it was replaced by a smaller structure dedicated in 1938. The earliest grave in the cemetery, that of W.M. Wilson's infant son who died in 1880, predates the church's acquisition of the site. Other graves include those of pioneer settlers and leaders of the church and community. In 1938 control of the burial site was transferred to the Stony Point Cemetery Association. By ordaining early ministers and by helping with the formation of churches in the nearby settlements of Verona, Altoga, Valdasta and White Rock, Stony Point Baptist Church had a dramatic impact on the region. It continued to play a vital role until it closed in the late 1950s as a result of the area's declining population. The sanctuary is still used for funerals and for the annual decoration day services. (1982)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In the 1870s and 1880s Stony Point was a bustling farm community with a cotton gin, gristmill, molasses mill, store, and school. Residents organized the Stony Point Baptist Church in 1878, and it grew into a spiritual hub—ordaining ministers and helping plant congregations in neighboring settlements—before declining population closed its doors in the late 1950s. Its cemetery, older than the church itself, still hosts funerals and an annual decoration day.
Why it matters
The church's role in seeding congregations across the region shows how rural churches were engines of community formation on the settling Texas frontier.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · A. J. Scribner
- · R. N. Coffey
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Mantua
Anna, TX
In 1854 a group of founders set aside twenty-five acres for the town of Mantua, conceived expressly to support the Mantua Seminary, with lot sales funding the school and deed restrictions banning gambling, horse racing, and liquor. A Masonic lodge, post office, and co-educational seminary followed, and by 1868 the school enrolled some eighty pupils. But when the Houston and Texas Central Railroad laid its tracks a mile and a half east in 1872, residents and businesses decamped for the new town of Van Alstyne, and Mantua faded until only its cemetery and a road name remained.
Site of Wilmeth-McKinney Homestead
McKinney, TX
When J.B. and Nancy Wilmeth staked out 320 acres of untouched Collin County prairie in 1846, Texas had been a U.S. state for less than a year and the frontier was still raw. Their two-story home became a hub of pioneer life—a place of worship for the First Christian Church congregation J.B. organized, and a free school he and his children taught for nearly four decades. J.B. helped choose the county seat and served as district clerk and county judge, while marriages knit his family to that of Collin McKinney, the county's namesake and a signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence.
Chambersville
McKinney, TX
Elisha and Peggy Ann Chambers brought their seven children to Texas in 1847, claiming headrights in Collin and Dallas Counties and donating land for a cemetery and school that seeded the community named in their honor. By the turn of the century Chambersville thrived with a sawmill, cotton gin, blacksmith, post office, and stores, while its school doubled as auditorium, dance hall, and even a roller rink. During World War I the Red Cross worked out of the school as local women rolled bandages for the troops.
First United Methodist Church of Van Alstyne
Van Alstyne, TX
This congregation grew from an 1847 Bible-study class held in a settler's log cabin, gathering strength through a legendary three-week revival in 1855 before moving with the railroad to the new town of Van Alstyne in 1873. It hosted the first district Epworth League of the Southern Methodist Church in 1894 and, in 1912, an address by former president Theodore Roosevelt; one of Texas' earliest Boy Scout troops formed here in 1917, the same year the present sanctuary was dedicated. The modern name followed the national Methodist union of 1968.