DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. You're rolling through Leon County now, and the land out here has a way of holding onto its stories. This one goes back before the Civil War, when a family by the name of Yarborough packed up everything they had in Alabama and headed for Texas.
George Washington and Elizabeth Yarborough, originally out of South Carolina, made that move in the 1850s and put down roots in eastern Leon County. Five sons. Five.
And when the Civil War came calling, all five of them answered for the Confederate cause. That's a family that gave just about everything it had to a conflict that would reshape this whole region. Two of those brothers, Wade Hampton Yarborough and William Burns Yarborough, came out the other side and eventually found their way to the Brushy area.
Wade, born in 1834, and William, born in 1840, pooled what they had and purchased 186 acres right here in 1883. Now, here's where the story gets interesting. William worked that land — steady, deliberate, put in the time to pay it off.
Wade, meanwhile, was forced to move away for a time due to illness. Not by choice. Life had other plans for him.
But Wade Yarborough was not a man who stayed gone. He came back. And before he did, he had set aside three acres — three acres out of that hard-won 186 — for a church and a cemetery.
When he returned, he ministered to the Primitive Baptist Congregation in a one-room sanctuary that also served as a school. One room carrying the weight of worship and learning both. That little building stood and served this community until the 1920s, when the church was lost to a fire.
The congregation, the schoolchildren, the Yarborough brothers themselves — all of it now resting in the name of this place, and in the ground those three acres became.
What the marker says
The family of George Washington and Elizabeth Yarborough, originally from South Carolina, came to Texas from Alabama in the 1850s and settled in eastern Leon County. Their five sons served the Confederate cause during the Civil War. Two of them, Wade Hamption (1834-1905) and William Burns (1840-1913) Yarborough, moved to the Brushy area and purchased 186 acres here in 1883. William worked the land to pay it off while Wade was forced to move away for a time due to illness. Wade did set aside three acres for a church and cemetery and returned to minister to the Primitive Baptist Congregation in a one-room sanctuary that also served as a school. The church building was lost to a fire in the 1920s.