Doss CenterNewberry Cabin · 1859–1875
A House That Was Also a Church
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On April 23rd, 1871, Robert C. Newberry and his family hosted a church service in their home. There was no church building. There was a house, and neighbors, and a Sunday.
That congregation kept meeting in members’ homes until 1874, when Jim D. Newberry gave land for a church and a cemetery. A frame building went up in 1880 that served as both church and school.
The first marked grave in that cemetery belongs to R. W. Newberry, sixteen years old, son of Robert C. He drowned in the Brazos in 1879.
By 1892 the church had taken the Newberry name, and then the whole community took it too. Today there are around six hundred graves out there.
All of it started in a room like this one, with a family who opened their door on a Sunday morning.
Sixteen thousand more, all over Texas
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Recorded with the Doss Heritage and Culture Center, Weatherford, Texas.
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