Woodbury Missionary Baptist Church
Woodbury, Hill County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Organized Sept. 28, 1871, by Elder Samuel Lacy, assisted by Elder S. E. Brooks. Early members came from the Bigham, Brooks, Ezell, Posey, Reed, Rozell, Skinner, Stearnes, and Witty families. Sunday School was organized in 1902. Present building was erected 1933.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Woodbury Missionary Baptist Church was organized in 1871 by Elder Samuel Lacy, drawing its first members from the pioneer families settling this corner of Hill County. A Sunday School followed in 1902, and the congregation raised its present building in 1933. The church has anchored the small rural community for generations.
Why it matters
Frontier churches like this were the social and spiritual center of newly settled Texas communities, binding scattered farm families into a shared life.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Samuel Lacy
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Lackawanna Ranch
Hillsboro, TX
Dr. John S. Scofield gave the Indian name "Lackawanna" to the 2,500-acre tract he bought here in 1858 after moving from Kentucky, serving Hill County as a doctor and county judge. He introduced shorthorn cattle to the area, and his son Frank raised prize-winning shorthorns on the inherited ranch. After the first house burned, the present structure was built in 1917, and the ranch was sold in 1945.
Prairie Dale Cemetery
Hillsboro, TX
Prairie Dale Cemetery was established in 1877, in the years when settlers were filling in the Blackland Prairie of Hill County. Recognized as a Historic Texas Cemetery in 2007, it marks the resting place of one of the area's early rural communities.
Peoria Cemetery
Peoria, TX
Peoria Cemetery was established in the 1830s as this small Texas community formed, its first plot donated by J. R. DeArman and later grants made across four generations of the William Thomas Hill family. Tradition holds that a child fatally bitten by a rattlesnake was the first laid to rest here, joined over the years by many rural residents and travelers in unmarked graves.
Ivy-Atchison Pioneer Home
Peoria, TX
Built in the 1840s, this log structure was among the first homes in the settlement that grew into Peoria, and portions of its original hand-hewn walls survive behind glass within a later frame house. It was long the home of Col. V.H. Ivy and his sons, two of whom became pioneer doctors. Successive owners enlarged and enclosed the cabin, and the marker was moved to the community center in 2010.