The Fairview Community

submitted by Patsy Johson

Written by Lorene Bishop, county historian, and published in the Brownwood Bulletin.

In the well-kept Fairview Cemetery in northern Brown County, there are many monuments. Most have the traditional inscriptions--names, birth and death dates. A marble marker mounted on a cement block is the exception. It reads: "Fairview Cemetery--Founded in 1878. Land donated by A. Hulse, J.J. Martin, A.A. Martin and F.B. Smiley. Site of Fairvew School and Church 1882-1900."

The marker has an interesting story. One Sunday afternoon Velma Martin took her aged father, Arthur A. Martin, to the cemetery to visit the graves of his wife and parents, they came to a place beside the fence where a few rocks were laying on the ground. Seeing the rocks, Arthur stopped and remarked, "It is sad that there is nothing to mark the place where the Fairview School and church once stood." He showed Velma where the door of the church and school had been.

Sometime later, Mr. Martin and Velma made another visit to the cemetery and again they walked to the church and school location. There stood a marker, right where the door had been. Tears came to his eyes, Velma had made her father's wish come true.

Before the Fairview Church and School there was the New Hope Baptist Church and School. On October 23, 1875, at the New Hope school and church building, the first organized Baptist church in Brown County held worship services. The location of the church was near Fairview Cemetery and west of Grosvenor on the road to Blackwell Crossing.

About 1881, it was decided to move the New Hope school and church up the hill west of the Fairview Cemetery. The reasoning was sound--when the Briar Creek was full of water, neither students nor worshipers could cross the creek. The New Hope building was abandoned.

Within a short time the new Fairview building burned. J.J. and Lucy Ann Martin donated land east of the cemetery to build another building. In 1900 the Fairview School consolidated with the Grosvenor school.

Arthur Martin and his family attended the Fairview Church and school. They had to walk about a half-mile and climb through a fence to get to the building. When Arthur was about four years old, he got sleepy one Sunday night and decided to find him a vacant bench and sleep through the services. When he woke up it was pitch dark. The congregation had left and the lamps were turned out. He started home, got to the fence and could not see how to get through it, so he began to cry.

The family had discovered he was missing about half way home so the father, J.J. Martin, ran back and found Arthur at the fence. He picked Arthur up, dried his tears and yelled to the family that he had been found. (This story was told by Velma, daughter of Arthur).