Red Hill Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and here's how I'm passin' it along to you. Settlement in this part of Henderson County began in the 1840s, and by 1849, something had already taken root, something that tends to outlast almost everything else out here on the Texas land. The Red Hill Methodist Church had been established, about three miles northwest of where this cemetery now stands.

Folks were putting down roots, building community, doing what settlers do. And then, sometime before 1877, the Red Hill Methodist congregation started holding camp meetings at this very site. Not in a building.

Not under a roof. Out in the open, or under what they called brush arbors, those rough shelters of cut branches and sky, where the preaching could go on as long as the spirit moved it. Which, if you know anything about camp meetings, could be a good long while.

Now in 1877, a man named H. E. Calehan, a Smith County resident, donated more than seven acres here to the Red Hill Methodist Episcopal Church, South.

More than seven acres, given over to the church. A church building was never actually built at that site, but that didn't slow things down. Methodist congregations from the Red Hill community and the Blackjack community kept coming.

Summer revivals. Brush arbor meetings. Year after year, those religious gatherings became traditional annual events.

The kind of thing families planned around. The kind of thing children grew up remembering. But a camp meeting ground has a way of becoming something else over time, something quieter, something permanent.

Local tradition holds that burials were taking place here before anyone started writing names down. The first recorded interment is that of Lucinda, daughter of Joel and Mary Morton, in 1877. That same year Calehan made his donation.

From that point forward, Red Hill Cemetery became a community graveyard, serving not just one settlement but the surrounding rural community and the towns of Brownsboro, Blackjack, and Murchison. Today, more than 450 marked grave sites rest here. Among them, many of the pioneer settlers of this area and their descendants.

And veterans, men and women who served in wars ranging from the Civil War all the way to the Vietnam conflict. The whole arc of this place, from brush arbor to burial ground, is kept by the Red Hill Cemetery Association. This marker was part of the Sesquicentennial of Texas Statehood, 1845 to 1995.

And what strikes me about Red Hill is this: they came here to be moved by something larger than themselves, and then they stayed. Some of them, forever.

What the marker says

Settlement in this area began in the 1840s. By 1849 the Red Hill Methodist Church had been established about three miles northwest of here. Sometime prior to 1877 the Red Hill Methodist congregation began to hold camp meetings at this site. In 1877 Smith County resident H. E. Calehan donated more than seven acres here to the Red Hill Methodist Episcopal Church, South. Though a church building was never built at the site, Methodist congregations from the Red Hill and Blackjack communities attended summer revivals here. The religious gatherings, which included brush arbor meetings, became traditional annual events. According to local tradition burials took place here prior to the first recorded interment, that of Joel and Mary Morton's daughter Lucinda in 1877. The site became a community graveyard serving the area's rural community and the towns of Brownsboro, Blackjack, and Murchison. Red Hill Cemetery contains more than 450 marked grave sites. Among the people buried here are many of the pioneer settlers of the area and their descendants and veterans of wars ranging from the Civil War to the Vietnam conflict. The cemetery is maintained by the Red Hill Cemetery Association. Sesquicentennial of Texas Statehood 1845 - 1995