Pleasant Grove No. 2 Cemetery, School and Church

Duane's take

The way the marker tells it, here's the story of Pleasant Grove No. 2: and friend, the number in that name is doing a lot of work. Wise County, you see, has not one, not two, but three communities that looked out across the same rolling Texas land and landed on the very same name: Pleasant Grove. This is the second one.

Make of that what you will. Now, the earliest marked graves in this cemetery reach back to the late 1870s; which means people were putting down roots here, and eventually putting down something else too, before much of anything else was organized. But the community wasn't standing still.

In 1879, they started a school. A frame schoolhouse went up just north of the burial ground, sitting on a patch of land (one and a half acres) deeded over by a man named H. T.

Boyd. That building wasn't just a school, either. It pulled double duty as a church, as a gathering place, as whatever the community needed it to be.

One roof, a whole lot of purpose. Church services have been held at this site since that same year, 1879; and here's the thing that earns a quiet nod: they are still being held there. That's a long, unbroken thread.

The school, though, followed a different road. In 1929, it consolidated with Boyd, a community sitting three miles to the north. And eventually the old frame schoolhouse gave way entirely; in 1942, a rock church building rose up in its place.

Sturdier material, same ground. Three communities, one name, and this one has been holding services and keeping its dead since 1879. Pleasant Grove No. 2 may have a number in its name, but there's nothing second-rate about its staying power.

What the marker says

This community is one of three in Wise County named Pleasant Grove. The earliest marked graves in the cemetery date from the late 1870s. A community school was started here in 1879 and a frame schoolhouse was built north of the burial ground on 1.5 acres deeded by H. T. Boyd. The building was also used for church services and community functions. The school consolidated with Boyd (3 miles north) in 1929. Church services have been held at this site since 1879. The cemetery is still used, but the schoolhouse was replaced by a rock church building in 1942.