Zion Hill Missionary Baptist Church and Cemetery
Zion Hill, Jasper County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Local tradition and Baptist church records indicate that the Zion Hill Missionary Baptist Church was organized in 1852 with the Rev. John Bean as first pastor. The first church building on this site is thought to have been a small log house. On August 15, 1853, Aurin Goodgame Horn donated 3 acres including the graveyard to the Zion Hill Baptist Church. The oldest marked grave is that of Joseph Wood, who was born in 1792 in North Carolina and died in Jasper County on September 16, 1854. The original church building was quickly replaced by a board-and-batten structure and in the 1880s, a large frame building. This still until 1967, when it was demolished and replaced by a modern brick edifice outside the cemetery's north fence. Of over 1,186 graves in Zion Hill Cemetery, 36 are unmarked or unknown. Several were citizens of the Republic of Texas; 75 war veterans are interred on this site. The graves of 102 young children bear witness to the high infant mortality rate among pioneers. Another notable grave is that of the Rev. A. C. Sims (1845-1920), who was born in the Republic of Texas, served in the Confederate Army, and was a pastor of Zion Hill Baptist Church. (1998)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Organized in 1852 on land soon donated by pioneer Aurin Goodgame Horn, Zion Hill Missionary Baptist Church grew from a small log house to a board-and-batten sanctuary and finally a large frame building that stood into the 1960s. Its cemetery holds more than a thousand graves, among them citizens of the Republic of Texas and dozens of war veterans. The many small stones of children buried here are a stark record of the hardships of frontier life in East Texas.
Why it matters
Rural church-and-cemetery grounds like this one preserve the everyday faith, family ties, and steep mortality of the Texans who settled the land in the decades around statehood.
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Related people
- · Rev. John Bean
- · Aurin Goodgame Horn
- · Rev. A. C. Sims
Themes & tags
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