Porter Springs Community and Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Porter Springs Community and Cemetery, out in Houston County. Now, before there was a town, before there was even a name to hang on this corner of East Texas, there was land. And in the 1830s, several Republic of Texas land grants were being acquired out in this very area — back when the republic itself was still a brand-new and uncertain thing.

One of those grants, a piece of ground William H. White picked up in 1838, would end up meaning a great deal more than anyone bargained for. We'll come back to that.

Settlement started taking hold in the 1850s. We know this partly from census records, and partly because of a man named Elisha Clapp, whose burial in a nearby cemetery — one mile southeast of here — in 1856 gives us a quiet but reliable marker of when folks were putting down roots. When people start burying their dead in a place, they're planning to stay.

The community that grew up here took its name from a man called James M. Porter, an early settler, and from the springs that occurred naturally in the area. Porter's Spring, they called it.

A name that tells you exactly what mattered: who was here, and what the land gave you. Then came 1862. In the middle of everything the Civil War was doing to Texas, Gould's Confederate Battalion was organized right here at Porter's Spring.

Think about that for a moment. This quiet community of springs and settlers became a muster point, a place where men were formed into a fighting force and sent out into a war that would reshape the whole country. Life kept moving after the war.

A school opened in 1870. A post office was established in 1875. And in 1895, the town's name was changed — formally, officially — to Porter Springs.

By then the place had real weight to it: a brick factory, a cotton gin, several churches, doctors, and a school system that would serve the community all the way until 1965. In 1978, Porter Springs established a community center. Today its residents — many of them descendants of those early settlers — primarily engage in farm and ranch activities.

The roots go deep here. Real deep. Now.

About that land William H. White acquired back in 1838. He set aside a portion of it as a family graveyard, and that cemetery, originally known as White Cemetery, became the ground where this community has kept its most solemn records.

The first recorded burial there was that of White's own son, James D., in 1863 — the same year Gould's Battalion was out fighting somewhere far from home. In 1899, White's heirs deeded two and forty-one hundredths acres of that ground to the local Methodist and Baptist churches, and the place took on a new name: Porter Springs Cemetery. A cemetery association was established in 1941 to maintain it.

The cemetery has been enlarged over the years, and it continues to serve the community to this day. From a Republic land grant to a living cemetery — nearly two centuries of one community holding onto itself, burying its dead, teaching its children, and staying. That's Porter Springs.

And that's no small thing.

What the marker says

Several Republic of Texas land grants were acquired in this area during the 1830s. Elisha Clapp's burial in a nearby cemetery (1 mile SE) in 1856 and other census records indicate area settlement in the 1850s. The community was originally called Porter's Spring for early settler James M. Porter and naturally occurring area springs. In 1862 Gould's Confederate Battalion was organized here. A school opened in 1870 and in 1875 a post office was established. The town's name was changed to Porter Springs in 1895. Porter Springs, which contained a brick factory, cotton gin, several churches, doctors, and a school system until 1965, established a community center in 1978. Today its residents, many of whom are descendants of early area settlers, primarily engage in farm and ranch activities. This cemetery, originally known as White Cemetery, was established as a family graveyard on land acquired by William H. White in 1838. The first recorded burial was that of White's son, James D., in 1863. White's heirs deeded 2.41 acres here to the local Methodist and Baptist churches in 1899 and it became known as Porter Springs Cemetery. The cemetery is maintained by an association established in 1941. It has been enlarged over the years and continues to serve the community.