FIRST Grave in Antioch Cemetery - Tolar, TX
Posted by: Groundspeak Premium Member QuarrellaDeVil
N 32° 25.386 W 097° 57.949
14S E 597234 N 3587805
A 2006 Texas Historical Marker for the Antioch Community notes that the first burial in the nearby Antioch Cemetery was that of Lottie Emiline Brown, in 1890.
Waymark Code: WMYCQB
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 05/30/2018
Published By:Groundspeak Regular Member Mark1962
Views: 0

Miss Brown's original concrete headstone is broken, out of its holder and on its back, but it is still very legible. Note the regional spelling for "till":

Lottie. E. Brow
N. Born. Nov.13,
1876. Died. May
12.1890

Rest.tell.we.
meet.again.

-----

Nearby is a "2.0" modern headstone for George Washington Brown, his wife, Mary, and Miss Brown. Below the family name, "Brown", it provides their personal information:

George Washington
Dec. 3, 1811
Sept. 6, 1891

1st Wife Martha Vandergriff
May 30, 1814 - Dec. 20, 1865

Mary Moore
Mar. 19, 1816
Feb. 14, 1910

2nd Wife
Aunt Polly

Lottie Emiline
Nov. 13, 1876
May 12, 1890

Daughter of
J.M. & S.J. (Hamby) Brown

-----

While the Antioch Cemetery has a Historic Texas Cemetery medallion, for whatever reason, the Texas Historical Commission opted to place a separate marker for the community. It is often the case that they will place the marker for the community at the site of a cemetery or church which is the last remnant of the community. Here, the historical marker is a one minute walk of about 300 feet from where Miss Brown is buried, and it reads.

Antioch, formerly an active farming community, is today a rural locale of western Hood County. The last Indian fight in the county, called Point of the Timbers or Battle of Lookout Point, occurred in this vicinity in September 1869. Organized settlement began in the 1870s, when families established ranches at the head of Stroud's Creek upstream from Thorp Spring. Stage routes from Fort Worth and Tolar also passed nearby.

A Baptist church, school and cemetery begun two miles east in 1881 became a small settlement called Stroud's Creek. In August 1889, the congregation moved to this site and changed the church name to Antioch. The Musick family gave land for the church and an adjoining cemetery. The first grave in Antioch Cemetery, that of teenager Lottie Brown, dates to May 1890. Confederate veterans George Washington Brown (1811-1891) and Austin Musick (1826-1897) are also interred there. The cemetery became inactive in 1941. By 1956, membership of the Antioch Missionary Baptist Church had dwindled to twelve members, and so the congregation disbanded and the church building was moved to Paluxy.

In 1894, Ellis School of Stroud's Creek split into Ellis, Asbury and Antioch schools. Early Antioch teacher Richard Mugg later became county school superintendent and county judge. Asbury merged with Antioch (known locally as Midway) in 1920. Classes ended in 1941 and students attended Tolar School, where the mascot of the Rattlers was inspired by a four-foot rattlesnake captured on Antioch's Jarvis Ranch. With the school and church buildings now gone, the cemetery marks the historic center of Antioch.

FIRST - Classification Variable: Person or Group

Date of FIRST: 05/15/1890

More Information - Web URL: [Web Link]

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