Upshur County, Texas
Gilmer is home to 35 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.
An ancient Indian people, their tribal name unknown, located this rock suited to their need and caused it to serve them in preparing food. Without tools and with great patience and skill they fashioned these stone-age…
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View on map ↗(Star and Wreath) Civil War supply and activity center. Men and boys served in the Confederate army on many battlefronts and in state troops protecting Texas from invasion. 3 military training camps were set up. Vital…
View on map ↗Hats for the Confederate Army were made here by Robert Potts Bros. hatters during Civil War. In a year's time, 300 pounds of wool was used for 600 hats valued at $7,000.00 Overcoats, blankets, shoes and caps were also…
View on map ↗On this site during the Civil War, a shoe factory converted leather into footgear for the Confederate Army. A harness factory nearby made bridles and saddles and also leather lines and breechings that hitched horses and…
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View on map ↗On this Cherokee Trace site he had visited 25 years earlier, when he lived with the Indians, Sam Houston twice spoke as the leading Texas statesman-- on June 10, 1857, as U. S. Senator, and early in 1861 as governor. At…
View on map ↗Established early in the 19th century by a band of Cherokees. Inhabited until those Indians and their associated tribes were driven from Texas in 1839.
View on map ↗During the years of 1860-70 in Gilmer, Morgan H. Looney had a school widely known for high academic standards, attracting many East Texas boarding pupils. Site was 4 blocks to the north. Boys and girls had separate…
View on map ↗Founded 1846. Named for Thomas W. Gilmer, U. S. Secretary of the Navy and ardent champion of annexation for Texas. Supply, training, production and educational center during the Civil War. Farming, lumbering and oil…
View on map ↗Organized May 13, 1848, in home of M. S. Long, a member. Other charter members were D. M., J. D. J., and Lucinda Davis, S. I. and Sarah Knight, and Martha Mattocks. First pastor was J. M. Griffin. Original building of…
View on map ↗In this grave, the first in Morris Cemetery, lies a Confederate soldier. On his way home at the end of the war, and very ill, he stopped at the William Morris home, near here. There he died, without revealing his name.
View on map ↗Started as preparatory institute in 1901 by Albert, R. W. and J. P. Maberry, aided by Ben Wiliams and W. W. Sanders. Trained teachers. Also had public school courses, with pupils from far away as Panhandle of Texas.…
View on map ↗Founded 1902; Named for W. M. Rhone, only sawmill operator in area until 1901, when arrival of Marshall & East Texas Railroad created a town which grew to have 15 sawmills, 10 stores, 2 churches, a school, hotel, bank,…
View on map ↗Built about 1869 by the Rev. Wm. Henry McClelland, a Baptist minister and teacher. He lived here and operated a private school, with day and boarding pupils, until the 2-story frame building burned on Dec. 14, 1876.…
View on map ↗Once located at a strategic crossing of Big Cypress Creek, this pioneer ferry transported settlers moving west into Texas through populous Jefferson, on Big Cypress Bayou. Those going to the interior of Texas often came…
View on map ↗Organized September 22, 1855, with 15 charter members, in New Hope community (4 mi. NW). Monthly meetings were held in a one-room log school. The building, with 2 acres of land, was given to the church in 1872. A new…
View on map ↗The Oak Hill Baptist Church, the first Baptist congregation in this area, was organized about 1870. Early services were held in a one-room log school house near this site. On Nov. 12, 1884, Mrs. Carrie V. Johnson…
View on map ↗The Rev. Joshua Soule (1781-1867), original bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, visited East Texas in 1846. Worshiping in a log cabin across the road from this site as early as the 1850s, settlers gave his…
View on map ↗Unmarked burials in this cemetery may have begun in the late 1860s, predating the founding of the church. The oldest marked grave is that of E. Hoggue, who died in 1877. One year later, in 1878, residents of the…
View on map ↗In 1865 the Rev. John Baptist led the founding of this congregation. The members built a brush arbor here and chose the name "Gilgal" after the site of the Israelites' first encampment in the Promised Land. Tom…
View on map ↗Part of a Republic of Texas land grant formerly occupied by Caddo and Cherokee Indians, this cemetery was established in the mid-1850s by plantation owner Alpha Phillips. The first grave, that of his father, William, is…
View on map ↗When the Marshall and East Texas Railroad was built through this area in 1907, the town of Rosewood was organized, replacing the earlier communities of Double Springs and Essex. Denny Dell McDonald, four-year-old son of…
View on map ↗First congregation was organized in a log cabin in 1846 as the Gilmer Missionary Baptist Church of Christ. In 1854 the congregation consisted of 22 members and the Rev. J. M. Griffin served as pastor. Church membership…
View on map ↗J. F. Croley purchased the Croley Hardware Company in 1890 and began an undertaking business as part of the hardware store services. In 1920 a partnership was formed to run the business, and in 1933 the Croley Burial…
View on map ↗Designed by architect James A. Wetmore, this building was constructed by A. C. Stamford of Alabama, who employed workers from Alabama and from Upshur County. Construction began in June 1925 and was completed early the…
View on map ↗First United Methodist Church of Gilmer Gilmer's early settlers came in the mid-18th century. By 1849, records indicate Baptist and Methodist congregations shared space at the county's log courthouse for their services.…
View on map ↗Oldest continuous business in this county. Founded as weekly, "Upshur County Democrat," Jan. 1, 1877. Early owners included W. C. Paul, the Rev. S. R. Chadick, and J. P. Hart, who named it "Texas Mirror" in 1882;…
View on map ↗Alex Earp, (Aug. 10, 1832-March 5, 1920). A lumber-boom sheriff. Won respect under great handicaps. Born in Alabama. Family moved to Texas; father was sheriff of Upshur County 1856-1860. Served as Confederate cavalry…
View on map ↗Civil War Recruiting Camp.
View on map ↗Near this site the Cherokee Indians blazed an early Texas trail. They wanted a road from their settlements near Nacogdoches to their home reservation on the White River in Arkansas. About 1821 they selected a man known…
View on map ↗Only home in Texas for negro orphans for thirty years, 1900-1929. Founded by W. L. Dickson, Negro Baptist minister, only superintendent home ever had. Orphans remained here until they reached 21, unless adopted or…
View on map ↗The Lafayette community, named by early settler Matthew F. Locke for his son, Lafayette Locke, developed in this area in the 1850s. Locke deeded three acres of land to the Philadelphia Baptist Church for a cemetery in…
View on map ↗Ferry point near this site, on Big Cypress. Important town of 1850's, with an academy, 2 dry goods stores, 2 groceries, drug store, 3 doctors, Methodist and Presbyterian churches, a hotel and Masonic lodge. During Civil…
View on map ↗Here on the Cherokee Trace was early Gilmer. On this spot in 1845 the first Upshur County Court convened under an oak. In spring 1846, Judge O. M. Roberts designated the nearby W. H. Hart home as courthouse until a…
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