Locust Grove

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Locust Grove, out there in Kaufman County. Now, some communities announce themselves. Big sign, main street, maybe a water tower with the name painted on it.

Locust Grove was the quieter kind, the kind that just got to work. Back in the 1800s, this community put together the whole kit: a saw mill, three churches, a grocery store, a doctor's office, and a school. That's not a settlement, friend.

That's a civilization. Somewhere in the pines of Kaufman County, people were building something meant to last. And here's the thing, they were right.

In 1891, two men named J. H. Muckleroy and W.

B. Martin sold three acres to James F. Smith and W.

J. Waggoner. The purpose written right into that deal: a school, a church, and a burial ground.

The essentials, in that order. The very next year, Smith and Waggoner turned around and donated that land to trustees. No fuss, no monument to themselves, just handed it over.

On those three acres rose a two-story building that pulled double duty as both a schoolhouse and a Baptist church. Mornings for lessons, Sundays for worship. Same walls, different calling.

Then came the post office, arriving in 1893, and with it a name change. The post office took its name from the first postmaster, a man by the name of James Hiram Hughes, and just like that, the community started going by Hiram. A place that began as Locust Grove was now answering to a man's given name.

The post office ran until 1906, and the name Hiram stayed with it. But the Locust Grove Baptist Church kept right on going. It prospered, as the marker puts it, and in May of 1919, the congregation dedicated a brand new church house.

That building is still in use today. Stand at that spot now and what you've got is the church and the adjoining cemetery, the two remaining historic landmarks of a community that once had all the pieces of a full life. The saw mill is gone.

The grocery store, the doctor's office, the school, all gone. But the church is still standing, and the cemetery keeps the names. Locust Grove may have faded to a whisper, but it never quite went quiet.

What the marker says

Established in the 1800s, the Locust Grove community included a saw mill, three churches, a grocery store, a doctor's office and a school. In 1891, J. H. Muckleroy and W. B. Martin sold three acres to James F. Smith and W. J. Waggoner for a school, church and burial ground. Smith and Waggoner donated the land to trustees the following year. A two-story building served as a schoolhouse and Baptist church. A post office, named for first postmaster James Hiram Hughes, operated from 1893 to 1906 and gave the community its later name of Hiram. Locust Grove Baptist Church prospered, and in May 1919 dedicated a new church house, which is still in use. The church and adjoining cemetery are the community's remaining historic landmarks. (2013)