Cherokee County, Texas
Alto is home to 31 official Texas Historical Commission markers — each one telling a piece of the city’s story. Browse the markers below, then find them on the map and discover more nearby with RoadHistorical.
Was the home of the exalted grand xinesi - chief priest and custodian of the sacred fire of the Hasinai Confederacy of Indians. If fire was allowed to die out, it was his duty to carry more fire with proper ceremony to…
View on map ↗Here at the opening of the 18th century stood a village of the Neches Indians. Their name was given to the river and later to a mission, San Francisco de los Neches, established nearby. With the Cherokees, the Neches…
View on map ↗Built before 1835 as a home and trading post by Martin Lacy, Indian agent for the Mexican government. Used as a place of refuge after the massacre of the Killough family, October 5, 1838. Erected by the State of Texas…
View on map ↗Noted as interpreters and messengers of peace, the Delawares were chiefly instrumental in bringing other tribes to the General Treaty at Bird's Fort (in the present county of Tarrant) in 1843. Erected by the State of…
View on map ↗Originally established as Mission San Francisco de los Tejas in 1690 by Franciscan missionaries for the purpose of Christianizing and civilizing the Neches and other Indians of the region Reestablished in 1716 Abandoned…
View on map ↗Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1962
View on map ↗No text.
View on map ↗Made crude kettles, plow tools, on this site in 1864-65. Slaves fled from Louisiana's Red River Campaign battles were the workers. This county had 2 war plants working easily-mined, abundant local ore. Smelting fuel was…
View on map ↗Organized 1844 by early preacher, Rev. Isaac Reed. First called Mount Olive, then Palestine. Worshipped in homes until 1854. Then small church (also used as school) was built on land donated by Capt. and Mrs. Henry…
View on map ↗Moved to Texas, 1908, from Arkansas. Taught in Rusk and Alto before marrying Dr. James C. Hill in 1919. Teacher, civic, social and religious leader who championed her beloved East Texas. Stella Hill Memorial Library…
View on map ↗(1770 -- 1848) Mother of child thought to have been first Anglo-American born in Texas, in 1804. Helena Kimble was born in Maryland. Married James Dill in 1786. Moved to Nacogdoches, then under Spanish rule, 1793. There…
View on map ↗Bulging out of the earth a few yards from this point, three prehistoric Indian mounds interrupt the prevailing flat terrain. Long overgrown with grass, the mounds and adjacent village (covering about 100 acres)…
View on map ↗Circuit riding preachers served the Methodists of this community as early as 1845. The first written records of this church date from 1852, when the Rev. Andrew Cummings (1817-1882) organized the fellowship as a station…
View on map ↗Organized in 1851, this Masonic body was chartered by the Grand Lodge of Texas in 1852. Meetings were originally held in the Linwood Community (7 mi. E). The lodge was named for George Whitfield Terrell (1893-1846), who…
View on map ↗In 1807, under commission from Gen. James Wilkinson, Governor of the Louisiana Territory, Lt. Zebulon Pike led an expedition to explore the headwaters of the Arkansas and Red Rivers and to report on Spanish settlements…
View on map ↗In 1876, land at this site was deeded to the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and to the County School Superintendent for the use of a church and public school. The Cold Springs Methodist Church, which takes its name…
View on map ↗Although Methodist worship services may have been held in this area before 1860, the first written records of this congregation date from that year, with the Rev. J. A. Srugs as the earliest known pastor. The church has…
View on map ↗Although few written records of this church exist before 1871, it is thought that the congregation was organized just prior to the outbreak of the Civil War. In 1871 the fellowship built a sanctuary at this site during…
View on map ↗(Nov. 13, 1801 -- Apr. 10, 1878) Ohio native Robert F. Mitchell came to Nacogdoches County, Texas in 1837. Briefly associated with John Durst in a mercantile firm, Mitchell moved to Cherokee County in 1849 and, soon…
View on map ↗The burial of a child, James W. Rozelle, was allowed on this wooded rise in 1850 by land owners Edwin and Martha Harry. In 1854 the Harrys allotted one acre at this site for a Methodist church, called Shiloh after the…
View on map ↗(February 8, 1788 -- October 4, 1880) A native of Georgia, Isaac Lee lived in Mississippi and Arkansas before coming to Texas in 1828. He settled first at present San Augustine and later near Nacogdoches. He was a…
View on map ↗.49 mi. E of Alto on SH 21, 2.6 mi. N of CR 2301 / SH 21 to cemetery access road
View on map ↗Members of the Holcomb family have been holding reunions in this location since 1897. George Creagor Holcomb moved to Texas from Arkansas in 1842 and later brought his father Joseph and uncle Zachariah Holcomb and their…
View on map ↗(Peter Ellis Bean) (June 8, 1783-October 3, 1846) Born in Tennessee, Ellis P. Bean came to Texas with Philip Nolan's mustang hunters in 1800. He was captured by Spanish troops in 1801, and taken to Mexico as a prisoner.…
View on map ↗As the population increased in Angelina and Cherokee counties in the 1860s, a formal system of roads began to take shape. Until that time, roads were usually forged by farmers and other pioneers carrying goods to market…
View on map ↗The property of the Southern Pine Lumber Company, Fastrill took its name from three men connected with logging in the area: Frank Farrington, postmaster at Diboll, the company headquarters, in the early 1920s; and P. H.…
View on map ↗Henry and Helena (Dill) Berryman deeded four acres of land at this site to trustees of the Old Palestine Baptist Church in 1853. Seven years later Helena, by then a widow, gave an additional two acres on which a…
View on map ↗Morrill Orchard Company Peach farmer Roland Morrill (1852-1923) came to Texas from his native Michigan with W. W. McFarland in 1901 to start a large-scale peach farm. They purchased acreage in this area near a rail line…
View on map ↗The U.S. Army built stateside camps by early 1942 to house prisoners of war (POWs). Camp Alto south of this site was a small branch operation of the Camp Fannin base facility in Tyler. The military set up branch camps…
View on map ↗James Dill, an early Anglo settler who would become the first alcalde at Nacogdoches under Mexican rule, petitioned the Spanish government in 1802 for land that included this site. He married Helena Kimble, who later…
View on map ↗Freed African Americans organized the Weeping Mary Community following the Civil War. Two sisters who were born into slavery, Nancy (Ross) Lockhart and Emily (Ross) Skinner, purchased the land on which the settlement…
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