Front:
Henderson County C. S. A.
Voted 400 – 49 for secession. Sent about 1,000 into Confederate Army, with one detachment of 150 having only 13 live to return. Caldwell's farm, three miles northeast, and Fincastle, 19 miles . . . — — Map (db m26382) HM
(Front):John H. Reagan (Right):"The Old Roman's highest ambition was to do his full duty; consciousness of having done it was his ample reward." (Left):"A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and loving favor . . . — — Map (db m17496) HM
Formed from Houston
and Nacogdoches counties.
Created April 27, 1846,
Organized August 4, 1846.
Named in honor of
James Pinckney Henderson
1808-1858
First governor of
the State of Texas
Buffalo, Centerville and Athens . . . — — Map (db m186666) HM
Henderson County was established in 1846, the year after Texas was annexed by the United States. In 1850, after previous reductions in the county's original size, the present boundaries were set by the Texas Legislature. The restructuring resulted . . . — — Map (db m186718) HM
Completing his work as a steel rigger in 1929 employed by Otis Elevator Company on the Texas Power & Light Company in Trinidad, Texas, Jess Sweeten was offered a job as a deputy constable in Henderson County. Bob King was appointed to find a new . . . — — Map (db m187048) HM
A native of North Carolina, Durham Avant came to Texas in 1834 with his wife, Susan (Winsett), and after a time they settled in present day Henderson County. Avant served as a Texas Ranger and in 1850 helped survey and determine a central location . . . — — Map (db m309684) HM
Alabama born William Avant grew up in what is now Henderson County after coming to Texas with his parents in 1834. At the age of 14, he served with his father, Durham, as a Texas Ranger. In 1849 he was issued a land grant in the Mercer colony (NE of . . . — — Map (db m309685) HM
A native of Mississippi, Arthur Columbus Horton came to Texas with his family in 1876. He studied medicine at Barnes Medical College in St. Louis, Missouri and the University of Dallas Medical College (later Baylor University College of Medicine). . . . — — Map (db m310429) HM
Influential early promoter of Norwegian emigration to Texas; born Elise Tvede in 1815.
In 1846, after John Reiersen migrated to Texas to found the first Norwegian settlement in the state, she became editor of his periodical "Norway and . . . — — Map (db m175573) HM
A native of Georgia, Thomas Hunt Hall came to Texas in 1854 and settled in Smith County. Following in the footsteps of his father and grandfather, he became a Methodist minister. He enlisted in the Confederate Army at the outbreak of the Civil War . . . — — Map (db m269213) HM
Surrounded by a forest of trees, Payne Cemetery is the final resting place for many of the area’s pioneer settlers and their descendants. In the 1870s, early pioneers moved to this area of Henderson County hoping to improve their lives. One early . . . — — Map (db m310440) HM
In 1867, a group of citizens, resentful of Northern control of the State and county, attempted to secede from Texas and the U.S. General Philip Sheridan, Commander at New Orleans, sent federal troops to restore order – resulting in a battle, won by . . . — — Map (db m247165) HM
Located a few blocks from the first prison in Texas, the 1848 Huntsville Penitentiary, the Captain Joe Byrd Cemetery is the final resting place for more than 3,000 inmates who died while incargerated within the Texas prison system. The first inmate . . . — — Map (db m180265) HM
Clint W. Murchison, Sr. was born April 11, 1895, in Tyler to John W. and Clara (Williams) Murchison. His grandfather, T.F. Murchison, was one of the earliest settlers to arrive in Athens and established the first bank in Henderson County in 1890. . . . — — Map (db m155140) HM
An earlier building at this location housed the law offices of Senator J. J. Faulk and Judge W. L. Faulk. In the early 1890s the site was purchased by J. R. Gauntt, a local businessman. The son of pioneer area settlers, he operated a mercantile . . . — — Map (db m187050) HM
David Allen Owen came to Texas with his first wife, Mary (Langsdon), who died enroute, and their 5 children. They traveled with family members and others from Randolph County, Alabama to Henderson County, Texas in 1851. Owen served as chief . . . — — Map (db m155485) HM
The Chandler United Methodist Church dates back to the 1870s when a group of Methodists came to Stillwater, about two miles north of Chandler, on the Upper Athens-Tyler stagecoach road. A.H. Chandler, who settled in the northeastern part of . . . — — Map (db m293952) HM
Three main tributaries - the West, Elm, and East forks - feed the Trinity from headwaters in North Texas. Discovery of prehistoric Malakoff Man carved stone heads near this site in the 20th century revealed that humans inhabited the Trinity valley . . . — — Map (db m30029) HM
Benjamin Franklin Wheeler, namesake for the Ben Wheeler Community, contributed to the development of communications across the region in his mail-carrying career and influenced land ownership in the area. He was born in 1818, in Adair County, . . . — — Map (db m255899) HM
The Texas Legislature created Henderson County in 1846. For the next few years, county commissioners met at various locations, including private homes and the communities of Buffalo and Centerville. Samuel Huffer later determined the center of the . . . — — Map (db m186715) HM
North Carolina native Eber Meredith, his wife Caroline (Ross), and their four children moved to this area of Henderson County in the 1850s. Eber Meredith bought 320 acres of land in 1859 and purchased an additional 160 acres four years later. . . . — — Map (db m310435) HM
Poynor overlooks the valley of Caddo Creek in the southeast corner of Henderson County, and was established along the Texas and New Orleans railroad in 1901. Originally, Poynor was known as "David" in honor of David Marion Dickerson (1822-1902), . . . — — Map (db m269068) HM
Established by colonizer Johan Reinert Reiersen (1810-64). The 1845 founder of Brownboro (Normandy) in present Henderson County, who settled here in 1847. Elise Tvede Waerenskjold, Reiersen's aide on his magazine "Norway and Texas", spurred . . . — — Map (db m96379) HM
Born in North Carolina March 31 1808 • Arrived in Texas June 3, 1836 at the head of a company of volunteers • Attorney General of the Republic 1836 • Secretary of State 1836-1837 • Minister to England and France 1837-1839 • Special Minister to the . . . — — Map (db m221103) HM
Originally part of a Mexican land grant awarded to Jose de Jesus Grande in 1828, land at this site was later granted to early area settler Henry Rampy. Rampy, who had come to this part of Texas in 1848, deeded 5 acres of his land in 1859 for a . . . — — Map (db m181660) HM
Athens Lodge No. 165 A.F. & A.M., founded in 1854, was the first Masonic lodge to be organized in Henderson County. Henderson County had been created in 1846, and the third county seat, Athens, had been founded in 1850. The group emphasized . . . — — Map (db m219472) HM
Settlers began occupying the Baxter area in 1850. At first, schools were informal and community-based, although the Texas Legislature attempted several times to ignite a public school system. In 1876, the Alligator Public School began classes. Early . . . — — Map (db m269215) HM
Thomas Murchison was born in Tennessee and grew up in Marshall, Mississippi before moving with his parents to Houston County, Texas around 1848. Murchison moved to Athens around 1855 and worked in a general store. Around 1858, Murchison began his . . . — — Map (db m232805) HM
The Rev. Robert H. Hodge (1805-1866), a native of Tennessee, immigrated in 1850 to Anderson County, Texas. After two years he came to Henderson County. He began Science Hill Academy (15 mi. S). The only classical high school in the area during that . . . — — Map (db m247189) HM
This burial ground has served residents of the Flat Creek community since the years shortly after the Civil War. It is named for the Rounsavall family, which settled in Henderson County around 1857. Arba Monroe Rounsavall (1843 – 1926), a . . . — — Map (db m310478) HM
In 1856, Joseph M. Stirman of Kentucky donated five acres of his property for the building of a church and school regardless of race, sex, or religion, establishing the Sand Flat community. Of these five acres, two acres signify the resting place . . . — — Map (db m310460) HM
James Madison Shelby (1814-1889), a native of North Carolina, moved with his large family from Alabama to Texas in the 1870s. They first lived in Smith County, then moved to southeastern Henderson County. There they established a Presbyterian church . . . — — Map (db m247185) HM
Permanent settlement of the area that became the Cottonwood community began in the 1840s and 1850s. Pioneer families, including the Stirmans, Greens, Cokers, Fraziers, Benges, Grahams, Hendleys and Wheelers, established a community church, school, . . . — — Map (db m310459) HM
Henderson County pioneer Davis Reynolds (1800-1869) came to Texas in 1856 with his wife Catherine (1802-1871) their unmarried children, James, Julia, Catherine, and John H., and several slaves. Traveling by wagon and foot, they journeyed from Gordon . . . — — Map (db m269214) HM
Henderson County Methodists were first organized in 1852 by the Rev. Hezekiah Mitcham. Worshipers met in homes and brush arbors around the county. In 1854, the Rev. W.M. Sansom was assigned to this circuit, and in 1859 he formally organized 12 . . . — — Map (db m247191) HM
Located on the C.B. Jennings survey and atop Jennings Mountain, the four-acre Echols Cemetery was established as a local burial ground for settlers in Brownsboro. Richard O. Echols (1851-1905) and Margaret Ann (Williams) Echols (1859-1939) settled . . . — — Map (db m310479) HM
In the late 1850s the Ralph Hunter League in eastern Henderson County was divided among David O. Warren's heirs and settlement of this area began in earnest. According to local history, John Dickey Morrison (1830-1896), though not an ordained . . . — — Map (db m269072) HM
This burial ground has served this area of eastern Henderson county since the mid-1800s, when the Black Jack community was established. Cradled between the towns of Brownsboro and Murchison, Black Jack became a desirable place to settle due to the . . . — — Map (db m310471) HM
Tennessee native John Leakey (1824-1900) came to Texas in 1847, settling for a time in Henderson County where he was a brickmason and rancher. He and his wife Nancy (Patterson) moved to Uvalde County in 1852 near present day Sabinal. A desire to . . . — — Map (db m111322) HM
The name of this cemetery comes from a
nearby chapel whose African-American
minister, Joseph Evans (1823-1883),
counted both blacks and whites as
members of his congregation. 1870 is the
date of the earliest known burial, that of
Sidney J. . . . — — Map (db m310474) HM
Julius Rosenwald was a Jewish American philanthropist. He believed the most serious problem of the United States was the plight of Black Americans. Dr. Booker T. Washington, though having been a slave, rose to become the nationally respected . . . — — Map (db m229538) HM
A portion of the original
Mercer Grant created from
Henderson County in 1848
Named in honor of the illustrious
statesman Isaac Van Zandt
Born in Tennessee, July 10, 1813
Delegate to the Annexation
Convention in 1845
Died in . . . — — Map (db m187059) HM
Granddaughter of prominent businessman, Clint W. Murchison
Sr., Virginia "Ginger" Murchison was born in Dallas to John Dabney
(1921-1979) and Lucille Hughes "Lupe" (Gannon) Murchison (1925-2001).
Ginger attended school in Dallas and at Henderson . . . — — Map (db m285768) HM
Thin black lines indicate changes in relevance. Between each pair of lines entries are ordered geographically but all have the same relevance.
* Inflectional forms of words are their plurals, singulars, and possessives as well as gramatical tenses and similar variations.
