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McLemore, John F. "Finn"

Status: Located

Gravel Hill Cemetery, Sabine County, Texas, USA

Notes: Kay Parker McCary writes "From the Sabine County Court House in Hemphill, Texas go West on State Hwy 184 (Main Street) for 2.1 miles to the "Y" intersection of Hwy 184 and FM 1592. Take the Right at the "Y" on FM 1592 and go 7.0 miles to the Cemetery on the Right, just past Anitoch Missionary Baptist Church. J. B. Sanders Cemetery Book (Abt 1963) lists 38 graves as being unmarked. Additional information added in parenthesis. The history of Antioch Church, near Bronson, in Sabine County, begins with the establishment of the Gravelhill Community. The story goes that sometime in the early 1870's a family coming from Louisiana into Texas stopped to camp for the night on the gravelly hill where the church and cemetery now are. Around the campfire the older children played while the mother held an infant and watched. Finally the fire died down and they all turned in for the night. They awoke to death. During the night, and for no apparent reason, the baby had died. The saddened family dug a grave on the fill and laid their little one to rest. This was the Kirk family, and they decided to remain and make their home near Gravelhill. The cemetery grew; the Kirks had another child buried here in 1884. The names are still legible on the identical stone markers in the cemetery. The Antioch Church was established just a few years after the fateful night which brought these first settlers to Gravelhill. A deed to the property where the Church and cemetery are now located was given by Mr. George W. Conn, in August, 1875, but the Sabine County Court House burned in November and all records were destroyed, including the deed to the property. For some reason the deed was not refiled, but 97 years later, in 1972, a copy was found by a daughter-in-law looking through Mr. Conn's old trunk. Mrs. Allie Conn promptly filed the old deed. The church was organized on January 3, 1876, under the direction of Elders J. S. Lambert and J. J. Roundtree. Thirteen other men and women went into the organization, including George Conn, John Anderson, J. S. White, Hosie Baldaree, Ann Mason, M. A. Conn, T. D. Burkhalter, John Deweese, L. S. Hoard, Mary E. White, Sophie H. Wallace, Mrs. C. A. Hoard, and C. Baldaree. In their preamble to organization, signed by each member, the church stated that they had "been regularly baptized on the profession of our faith"..."under the name of Antioch Missionary Baptist Church of Christ holding to the doctrine contained in the sacred Scriptures to be predicated on republican principles..." On May 18, 1991, the new sanctuary was dedicated. In July, 1997, the church became incorporated under the name Gravelhill Antioch Missionary Baptist Church to distinguish it from another church in the state with the name Antioch. Note: Vermel Brust says this history is correct except that the first burial here was not a Kirk child. The first child buried here is unknown and is buried to the left of the Kirk children in an unmarked grave.* GPS Coordinates: 3124249N - 09355730W ; First Marked Burial - 20 Sept 1877 ; Last Marked Burial - {29 Aug 2003)."


Directions and cemetery/church history copied from Kay P. McCary, who has inventoried and annotated this and many other Sabine County cemetery indexes, available online at:

http://www.rootsweb.com/~txsabine/burials/index.htm

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