Newberry Commuinity

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm gonna do my best to honor every word. This is Duane, and this is Newberry Community. Now, Parker County, Texas has seen its share of settlers, preachers, and pioneers, but some communities root themselves so deep in the soil that even time has to work around them.

The Newberry community is one of those. It starts, as so many good Texas stories do, with a family and a piece of fertile land. Robert S. and Nancy Ann Porter settled right here in 1855.

Robert Porter didn't waste any time making himself useful. He became the first county judge for the newly organized Parker County the very following year. That's the kind of man who shows up and gets handed a gavel before the paint's even dry.

The Porters weren't alone for long. Their early neighbors read like a small-town roll call, the Baker, Cowan, Dick, Dillard, Doss, Hemphill, Hightower, Johnson, Kidwell, Lane, Nevil, Newberry, Peters, Potter, Simpson, Strain, and Witherspoon families. Good country names, every one of them.

Now, where settlers gather, a church is never far behind. The Brazos congregation of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church was organized on the fifth Sabbath in May of 1868, near the town of Dennis. That's a detail worth savoring.

Not just a Sunday in May. The fifth Sabbath in May. Somebody wrote that down carefully, and they were right to.

By 1871, though, many families had pulled up and moved north to the Grindstone Creek area. And that's where the story takes a turn that feels almost like a founding moment, even if nobody called it that at the time. On April 23, 1871, Robert C.

Newberry and his family opened their home for a Cumberland Presbyterian Church service. One family, one home, one April Sunday. That gathering became what they called the Grindstone Congregation of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, and for a while the congregation just kept moving, meeting in members' homes the way early congregations do, making church out of whatever roof was handy.

Then Jim D. Newberry gave land, land for a church and a cemetery, in 1874. That gift planted something permanent.

But permanence, as this community would learn, doesn't come without grief. The earliest marked grave in that cemetery belongs to R. W.

Newberry, sixteen years old, son of R. C. Newberry.

He drowned in the Brazos River in 1879. Sixteen years old. You feel the weight of that every time you read a list of the living and then come across the first name carved into a stone.

The community kept building. A new frame building went up for both a church and a school in 1880. The church took the name Newberry Cumberland Presbyterian Church in 1892, and the community followed suit, taking the Newberry name as well.

A tabernacle was built in 1901. The school moved to this site in 1903. In 1929 the school was consolidated with the Millsap School District, which is the quiet way communities mark a chapter closing.

But the church held on. At the dawn of the twenty-first century, the cemetery held about 625 identified graves, and somewhere between 75 and 100 more whose names the years had taken. Church meetings were still being held, once a month.

The Newberry church and cemetery remain, as the marker itself puts it, chronicles of those who shaped Parker County. That's not just a nice closing line. That's the whole point.

A home opened for a Sunday service in 1871, a piece of land given in 1874, a frame building raised in 1880, and more than six hundred names in the ground. That's how a community writes its own history, one Sabbath, one stone, one family at a time.

What the marker says

Robert S. and Nancy Ann Porter settled on the fertile land in this area in 1855. Robert Porter became the first county judge for the newly organized Parker County the following year. Among their early neighbors were the Baker, Cowan, Dick, Dillard, Doss, Hemphill, Hightower, Johnson, Kidwell, Lane, Nevil, Newberry, Peters, Potter, Simpson, Strain and Witherspoon families. The Brazos congregation of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church was organized on the fifth Sabbath in May 1868, near the town of Dennis. By 1871 many families had moved north to the Grindstone Creek area. Robert C. Newberry and his family hosted a Cumberland Presbyterian Church service in their home on April 23, 1871. The church became known as the Grindstone Congregation of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, meeting in members' homes until Jim D. Newberry gave land for a church and cemetery in 1874. The earliest marked grave in the cemetery is that of sixteen-year-old R. W. Newberry, son of R. C. Newberry, who drowned in the Brazos River in 1879. A new frame building was erected for a church and school in 1880. The church became known as Newberry Cumberland Presbyterian Church in 1892, and the community took the Newberry name, as well. A tabernacle was built in 1901 and the school was moved to this site in 1903. In 1929 the school was consolidated with the Millsap School District. At the dawn of the 21st century, there were about 625 identified and 75 to 100 unidentified graves in the cemetery. Church meetings were held once a month. The Newberry church and cemetery remain as chronicles of those who shaped Parker County. (2000)