Participated in the storming
and capture of Bexar, December
5th to 10th, 1835. A Captain in
the Texas Army, 1836. Born in
Tennessee, 1793. Died Jan. 10, 1853 — — Map (db m145860) HM
A native of Turkey, Paul M. Donigan (1862-1930) came to the United States about 1890 to attend medical school. The presence of relatives in this area brought him to Brookshire upon graduation. In 1910, Dr. Donigan built this home for . . . — — Map (db m145858) HM
This church traces its origin to the establishment of the Union Chapel Methodist Church by the Rev. Churchill Fulshear in the former community of Pittsville (6 mi. S) in 1844. Union Chapel served settlers in this area and moved to a new location . . . — — Map (db m145857) HM
First town in area. Platted 1893 by John G. Kellner (1846-1933), donor, Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railroad right of way and station site. Kellner's rich Brazos River watershed farm and ranch lands produced rice, cattle, peanuts, . . . — — Map (db m145859) HM
Established during reconstruction period on land given by D.H. Fields, local merchant for whom community and cemetery were named, and by J.W. Day, Confederate Veteran. Burial place of early settlers of area and their descendants, including . . . — — Map (db m169385) HM
Settlers began arriving in this vicinity prior to the Civil War. In the early 1870s Druey Holland Field (1809-72) and his wife Caroline (Perry) (1837-76) opened a general store in the area, and the small agricultural settlement that soon developed . . . — — Map (db m169390) HM
This two-story galleried Greek Revival residence was built about 1872 by German native William Ahrenbeck (1828-1888). A prominent area civic leader and builder, he also served as postmaster and mayor of Hempstead. His daughter Ella Justine Ahrenbeck . . . — — Map (db m117605) HM
During the Civil War, a Confederate training camp was built on Colonel Leonard W. Groce's Liendo Plantation. Camp Groce was north of the railroad and east of Clear Creek. Later Camp Groce was converted to a prisoners of war camp for Union . . . — — Map (db m158307) HM
Although no physical evidence has been found of the Confederate camp sites in this area, historical accounts have established that this part of Waller County was the location of several Civil War encampments. The close proximity of Clear Creek, the . . . — — Map (db m74263) HM
Methodism in Hempstead began circa 1857, shortly after the Hempstead town company was founded in December of 1856 to sell lots in the new town. Church histories indicate that an 1859 revival added members to the existing Methodist congregation, . . . — — Map (db m159306) HM
Before the age of modern communication, the postal system was a vital link between isolated rural settlements. Early Waller County post offices were often located in a residence or general store near the local church, gristmill, cotton gin, or . . . — — Map (db m125606) HM
Soon after the Civil War General George Armstrong Custer and his cavalry unit arrived in Texas as part of a large U.S. force sent to establish order and counter the threat posed by French-controlled Mexico. From August to October, 1865, Custer, his . . . — — Map (db m117799) HM
Pioneers in this Texas area. Had early cotton gin and ferry. Founder of family was Jared E. Groce (1782-1836), who came to Texas in 1822. His large wagon train brought elaborate plantation equipment. Groce built "Bernardo" and "Groce's Retreat." . . . — — Map (db m74265) HM
When the town of Hempstead was founded in 1856, a centrally located school site was platted, however, no school building was erected until after the Civil War (1861-65) and ensuing era of economic stress. There were several private schools . . . — — Map (db m159341) HM
Front:
Major Civil War center in Texas with railroad, troop training, manufacturing, and supply activity. Training camps Groce and Hebert kept troops in readiness to move by rail to Houston and thence to the coast of Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas . . . — — Map (db m125608) HM
A plantation home built in 1853 by Leonard W. Groce. The scene for many years of lavish Southern hospitality. Purchased March 4, 1873, by Dr. Edmund Duncan Montgomery (1835-1911), world-famed philosopher, and his wife, Elisabet Ney (1833-1907), . . . — — Map (db m241480) HM
Named for Spanish grandee who was first owner of the 5-league survey here.
Leonard W. Groce, a settler, in 1853 built this 16-room home using slave labor. Bricks for foundation and chimneys were made from Brazos Valley clay.
The kitchen . . . — — Map (db m241481) HM
Came to Waller County as a runaway slave from Alabama before Civil War. Married Betty Bradford, of Woodard Plantation, Hempstead; had 8 children. A talented Blacksmith, he specialized in improving farm implements; became a landowner, Freedmen's . . . — — Map (db m159398) HM
This burial ground originally served the family of T. B. White. His wife Elizabeth (d. 1857) and her father Henry Kirby (d. 1854) are interred here. White sold ten adjoining acres to the Salem Association in 1853 as a site for construction of a . . . — — Map (db m159406) HM
Member of the consultation in 1835 • Signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence • First mayor of the City of Austin • Member of the Secession Convention in 1861 • On this property, acquired during the Republic, he resided from 1846 for many . . . — — Map (db m159302) HM
Five miles southeast to the camp site of the Texas Army March 31 to April 13, 1836 when it crossed the Brazos on the steamboat Yellow Stone and began its march toward Harrisburg — — Map (db m241020) HM
The clock tower provides a permanent home for the 1894 bell and clock, both of which at one time were important functional adornments to the Waller County Courthouse
Arthur Osborne Watson designed the 1894 Courthouse and M. Clark of Galveston . . . — — Map (db m159397) HM
Several Confederate military facilities were positioned near Hempsted (2.5 mi. W), an important railroad junction, during the Civil War. Camp Groce (then about 6 mi. E) was a prisoner-of-war stockade established on the plantation of Leonard . . . — — Map (db m164073) HM
Created from Austin and Grimes counties, April 28, and organized Aug. 16, 1873. Named for Edwin Waller (1800-1861), a signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence, 1836; Postmaster General, Texas Republic; First mayor of Austin.
Site of rich . . . — — Map (db m125605) HM
Organized in 1892 by the Rev. W. C. Bracewell, circuit rider. Early services were held in McPherson School. In 1893 first church was built by men of community. Bill Page donated land. The present structure was erected in 1946, using same plan as . . . — — Map (db m169097) HM
The pioneer Springer family donated the original two acres of this graveyard and gave their name to the community in this area and to a school, also known as McPherson School. Later the cemetery was called Macedonia, for the nearby church founded . . . — — Map (db m169098) HM
Swiss immigrant John Frey (1857-1925) and his German-born wife Mary (1862-1933) moved to Waller County in late 1889. They built a small two-room house, a barn, and smokehouse, and began a family farm. The couple eventually had fifteen . . . — — Map (db m157645) HM
John Frey, born Johannes Frei in 1857 in Switzerland, came to America in 1877. He settled in Austin County, Texas, where he married German immigrant Mary Baethe in 1879. They eventually were the parents of fifteen children. They moved to . . . — — Map (db m157644) HM
A small white frame schoolhouse, erected here in the 1890s, served families in this rural area until 1929. Initially called Boyd School for D. R. Boyd, on whose land it was built, it later became known as Highland Home School. Children in . . . — — Map (db m157642) HM
Monaville, Aurora, and Bracy Island schools opened in this area during the last quarter of the 19th century when many rural schools were established throughout Waller County. Bracy Island School, established nearby sometime prior to 1890, and . . . — — Map (db m157659) HM
Born in the slave quarters of Sunnyside Plantation (3.2 mi.SE), Cuney displayed such intelligence as a boy that in 1859 he was sent to Wiley Street School for Negroes in Pittsburgh, PA. On returning to Texas after the Civil War, he studied . . . — — Map (db m157641) HM
One of the "Old 300" settlers of Stephen F. Austin's colony, Isaac Best spent his early life in Pennsylvania and Kentucky, where he built a mill and Best's Fort, a pioneer refuge during the War of 1812. He brought his wife Mary Margaret (Wilkins) . . . — — Map (db m145838) HM
Located at important junction of Atascosito Road and the San Felipe Trail, this homesite was established by James Tarrant and Sarah Smith Pattison on their Republic of Texas land grant, and became a stagecoach stop. Their plantation of 5,000 acres . . . — — Map (db m145835) HM
Virginia native Edwin Waller migrated to Texas from Missouri in 1831 as part of Stephen F. Austin's third colony. An active participant in the earliest stages of Texas' struggle for independence, Waller participated in the 1832 Battle of Velasco, . . . — — Map (db m145789) HM
Survivor of the famous Morgan Massacre; daughter of settler James Marlin. In Falls County, Jan., 1, 1839, Indians killed and scalped several members of the Morgan and Marlin families. Isaac Marlin, 10, ran 7 miles for help. His sister, Stacye Ann, . . . — — Map (db m145837) HM
Near this site stood the depot of Texas Western Narrow Gauge Railway, chartered August 4, 1870, operated from Houston to Sealy until 1899. Right of way was donated by the Pattison family, founders of the town of Pattison. Waller County . . . — — Map (db m145836) HM
Organized in the Hopewell schoolhouse, Aug. 13, 1888, with 13 members. Named for a small grove of pine trees nearby. This building erected in 1900. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1965 — — Map (db m159298) HM
In response to the political, social and economic turmoil in Texas and the South after the Civil War, the federal government enacted the Reconstruction Act on March 2, 1867. Many local and state officials were removed from office and a . . . — — Map (db m136910) HM
On Sept. 21, 1871, at nearby Kirby Chapel Methodist Church, thirteen people with letters of transfer from other congregations banded together as the Shiloh Baptist Church. The Rev. Jesse Tubb and Deacon John M, McGinty assisted with the . . . — — Map (db m151532) HM
In 1881 Thomas Armer deeded land in the Shiloh Community for a Baptist church. He sold an adjacent acre to the church for this cemetery in 1883, and in later years Armer sold more land to the church and to Pond Creek School. The community continued . . . — — Map (db m151534) HM
This cemetery is located on land that was originally part of Jared E. Kirby's Alta Vista Plantation. According to oral tradition, the Kirby family set aside this land as a burial site for their slaves, as well as slaves from nearby Liendo . . . — — Map (db m155570) HM
The Waller Methodist Episcopal Church, South, traces its history to 1888, the year it was first mentioned in regional Methodist conference records. Early members included Mr. and Mrs. W. W. Brown, Lawton M. and Sallie Bouknight and Simeon P. and . . . — — Map (db m151286) HM
An ambitious institution chartered by Baptists who formed South Texas Educational Conference about 1895 and in 1898 secured campus site from a local landowner, C.C. Waller. Trustees serving when college opened in fall of 1898 were J.C. McGaughy, . . . — — Map (db m151262) HM
The first of many Czech immigrants to settle in this area purchased land from Galveston developer E. H. Fordtran in 1891. Four Czech families founded St. Mary's Catholic Church in 1892. The first recorded burial here, on land donated by Frank . . . — — Map (db m159277) HM
Extension of the Houston and Texas Central Railroad here about 1857 provided the means for a growing number of settlers in this area to market their farm and ranch products. The town was platted by K. H. Faulkner in 1884 and named Waller for . . . — — Map (db m159244) HM