Primrose-Sexton Community

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker says about the Primrose-Sexton Community in Van Zandt County. Now settle in, because this one builds slow and steady, the way a community does. It starts with land, the way most Texas stories do.

Thomas Horsley received much of the land in this area from the state of Texas in 1847. And not long after, settlers began arriving in the 1850s, drawn to this corner of Van Zandt County like folks always are drawn somewhere when the land looks promising. Johnson Watts and his family came in 1858 and bought 820 acres of Horsley land.

The next year, 1859, B. H. Denson arrived with his family and thirty slaves, and bought 1,890 acres.

That is a fact the marker does not soften, and neither will I. Those enslaved people worked this ground, and their presence is part of this place's story whether their names were recorded or not. Out of the Denson land and the adjoining Watts land, the Sexton community began to take shape.

By 1866, when Denson sold land to John M. Williams, the deed set aside three acres for something called the Shilo Meeting House, believed to have been the first church and school in the area. Three acres carved out of a land deal, and a whole community's spiritual and educational life took root right there.

Then came the 1880s, and with them, Littleton Davidson and his family, who built a cotton gin. A cotton gin has a way of attracting settlers, and it did here too. By 1880, a one-room log building east of the Shilo Meeting House was up and running.

That was the New Harmony Church-School, sitting east of and across the road from what would become the New Harmony Cemetery. And that cemetery, well, its first grave was that of James A. Fulgham, who died at age two in 1880.

Two years old. You hold that for a moment, and then you keep going, because communities do. The New Harmony school ran until the late 1890s, when it closed.

But the community was not done buildin'. In 1899, Fern and Ann Williams and Al Sexton conveyed two acres for a Sexton community school, and that school grew rapidly. Then in 1902, a federal post office was established in Davidson's store, and they named it Primrose.

And there you have it. From that point on, residents called this place both Primrose and Sexton, two names for one community, depending on who you asked. In 1904, J.

D. Johns and his wife conveyed two acres for the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and the Sexton Chapel Church was established. The post office closed in 1910, but the community kept marking its ground.

In 1912, Al Sexton formally deeded two acres for the cemetery. A larger schoolhouse went up in 1914, and it served these people for decades, all the way until 1938, when consolidation brought the school into the Van Independent School District. What this marker is really tellin' you is that a community is not one moment.

It is 820 acres here, 1,890 acres there, a deed with three acres held back for a meetin' house, two acres given for a school, two more for a church, two more for a cemetery. Acre by acre, deed by deed, name by name. That is how a place becomes a place.

What the marker says

Thomas Horsley received much of the land in this area from the state of Texas in 1847, and settlers began to arrive in the 1850s. Johnson Watts and his family came in 1858 and bought 820 acres of Horsley land. B. H. Denson, his family and 30 slaves moved to the area in 1859 and bought 1,890 acres. The Sexton community developed on the Denson and adjoining Watts land. By 1866, when Denson sold land to John M. Williams, the deed excluded three acres for "Shilo Meeting House," believed to have been the area's first church and school. In the 1880s, Littleton Davidson and his family built a cotton gin, attracting more settlers. The one-room log New Harmony Church-School building east of Shilo Meeting House was in operation by 1880. It was east of and across the road from the cemetery. The first grave in the New Harmony Cemetery was that of James A. Fulgham, who died at age two in 1880. The New Harmony school closed in the late 1890s. Fern and Ann Williams and Al Sexton conveyed two acres for the Sexton community school in 1899. The school grew rapidly. A federal post office was established in 1902 in Davidson's store under the name "Primrose," so residents called the community both Primrose and Sexton. J. D. Johns and his wife conveyed two acres for the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, in 1904, establishing the Sexton Chapel Church. The post office closed in 1910. In 1912 Al Sexton formally deeded two acres for the cemetery. A larger schoolhouse was built in 1914. It served the community until consolidation with the Van Independent School District in 1938. (2000)