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Macedonia Cemetery (Includes 2 Reinterred graves from Robinson
Cemetery; 61 Reinterred graves from New Zion Cemetery), Sabine
County, Texas - From the Sabine County Court House in Hemphill,
Texas take FM 83 (Worth Street) East 1 block to FM 83/State Hwy 87.
Go North or Left on FM 83/Hwy 87 for about 1 mile to where FM
83 turns Right (At the Dairy Queen) and follow FM 83 for ??? miles
until you reach Macedonia Church on the Right.
Turn Right at the Church and the cemetery is behind the
church. Graves from New
Zion Cemetery and Robinson Bend Cemetery were moved to this cemetery
before Toledo Bend Reservoir was built.
This cemetery has a Historical Marker.
Additional information added in parenthesis.
The following "History of Macedonia
Baptist Church Cemetery" was provided with the Historical
Marker & Index of the Cemetery in 1999.
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"History of Macedonia Baptist Church Cemetery"
Nestled
amidst some of the most fragrant gardenias in Texas, Approximately
two miles Northeast of Hemphill on FM83, is the Macedonia Baptist
Cemetery. Without
regard to religious denomination, faith, or affiliation, the
cemetery has been the interment site for most of the black residents
of Sabine County for over a century.
The
cemetery is named for the church that sets in front of it.
Church records show the Macedonia Baptist Church was
established at its current site in 1885.1 Like Antioch Missionary
Baptist Church organized at Gravelhill in 1876, the church is among
the very few Sabine County churches established prior to 1900 which
has been in continuous existence since that time.2
The
church's continued existence, however, has not been easy.
In January 1918, the church burned.
Services were help under a bush arbor until it could be
rebuilt. The church was
rebuilt but burned again in September 1926. As a testimony to the tenacity and commitment of the black
residents of the community, the church was again rebuilt and stands
today as a source of faith, hope, and pride to the community.
According
to some of the older residents of the community, Macedonia Cemetery
and Macedonia Baptist Church had their origin even earlier than
1885. This means
Macedonia Church and Cemetery must have begun shortly after Hemphill
came into existence in 1858.2 According
to Whitman Johnson, a lifelong resident of Hemphill, his father,
Henry Johnson, born in 1862 told him of what was referred to as
"Old Macedonia Church and Cemetery".3 Old Macedonia is located about one mile north of
Hemphill approximately 1/2 mile from the current Hemphill High
School. The facility
served as the meeting place for both Methodist and Baptist
congregations. Whitman Johnson said his father told him that when
Macedonia Church moved to it current location, the Methodist
congregation continued to use the church until it burned the late
1800's. Records at the
Sabine County Courthouse show the Old Macedonia Cemetery and Church
was given to the Colored Methodist church by Joel Craig in 1893.4
During an interview with Blanche Toole, Sabine County
Historian, she said that in the mid to late 1800's there was a steam
mill and a settlement of black people located in this area.
She said this community of blacks disbanded when the mill
closed in the early 1900's.5 Today,
Old Macedonia Cemetery has approximately six marked and ninety
unmarked graves. The
earliest marked grave is that of T. B. Buckley, born in 1862 and
died in 1905.6 The most
recent markings indicate that some family members continued to bury
their love ones at Old Macedonia Cemetery until the early 1940's.
No
one seems to know the original seller of donor of the land for the
current site of the Macedonia Cemetery.
Neither does anyone know exactly how long the cemetery has
been in existence. However,
since church record clearly establishes the church's existence at
this location since 1885, it is believed the cemetery has been here
as long as the church has been here.
Over the years, additional acreage has been purchased to
expand the cemetery to meet the growing needs of the community.7
It was increased to 5 1/2 acres in 1968 when Robinson Bend's
entombed was moved to the cemetery to make room for Toledo Bend
Lake, the fifth largest man made lake in the United States.
The
cemetery has over 500 graves.8
There are 357 marked and 193 unmarked graves.
Many of the early graves are unmarked.
No doubt, as slavery had ended only 20 years earlier, most
blacks were too economically depressed to purchase markers.
The earliest marked graves are of two early settlers to the
black community. The
graves are those of Olin Robertson, born February 15, 1828 and died
January 19, 1906, and Daniels Thomas, born October 10, 1908, and
died May 25, 1913.9 Approximately
ten percent of the graves in the cemetery are those of Veterans of
Foreign Wars.10 Ten
graves of those of men who fought in WWI; thirty-seven are from
WWII; four are from the Korean Conflict and two are from the Vietnam
Conflict. One of those
men, L. C. Blake, died in battle during the Vietnam Conflict.
In keeping with black men's patriotism to this country, each
war is well represented.
The
cemetery is also the final resting place for several black pioneer
centenarians and over ninety nonagenarians, several of which were
born during slavery. Centenarians
include Lee Ella Smith, Born April 15, 1870 and died February 11,
1971; Oxlean Daniel, born August 15, 1870 and died April 11, 1971;
Mary White, born June 1, 1875 and died November 29, 1975, and Lizzie
Daniels, boo October 1876 and died January 5, 1979.
All these centenarians were an integral part of the early
settlers of the black community in Hemphill.
The
cemetery is the entombment site for many other early settlers of the
community. Many of
these people made notable contributions to the community. For
example, tax records show Henry Johnson, born in 1862, died and
buried at Macedonia Cemetery in 1955, came to Hemphill in the late
1800's. He purchased
hundreds of acres of land and donated the land to build the first
black school in Hemphill. His
son, Whitman Johnson, born in 1918 said he rememebers his father and
Judge Smiley working on the first school for blacks in Hemphill, It
opened in 1926 and was named Rosenwald School.
Judge Smiley, born in 1886 and died in 1981, is also buried
in the Macedonia Church Cemetery.
Mr.
Reese Trotty and several other residents of the Thomas Johnson
community have maintained the cemetery for many years.
Each year, individuals with relatives buried in the cemetery
are requested to donated $10 for the up keep of the cemetery.
The placement of a Texas Historical Marked at this site
honors the labor and commitment of all the men and women buried here
that helped to shape the history of blacks in Sabine County, TX
since the 1800's.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. Macedonia Baptist
Church records. Mrs.
Cleo Trotty, Church Clerk. FM
83, Hemphill, TX.
2. McDaniel, Robert
Cecil. Sabine County,
Texas: The First One
Hundred and Fifty Years (1836-1986).
Waco, Texas: Texian
Press, 1997, page 32.
3. Johnson, Whitman, 81
year old lifelong resident of community.
Personal interview, October 1999.
4. Sabine County Deed
Records, Vol, J, page 26. February
27, 1893, Hemphill, TX.
5. Toole, Blanche.
Sabine County Historian, Personal interview, August 1998 and
May 1999.
6. Buckley, T. B.
Tombstone at Old Macedonia Cemetery.
7. Sabine County Deed
Records, Vol. 264, page
336; Vol. 67, page 529 DR; Vol. 51, page 181 DR; and Vol. 201, page
719 DR.
8. Macedonia Baptist
Church Cemetery, listing of graves. (attached)
9. Robertson Olin and
Daniels Thomas, Picture of Tombstone at Macedonia Cemetery.
10. Marked graves, Macedonia Cemetery, Listing attached.
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*GPS Coordinates: 3121100N - 09349742W ;
First Marked Burial - {18 Jan 2002} ;
Last Marked Burial - {11 Dec 2002}
Indexed 25 Dec 1999 for Historical Marker ;
Updated from Obits 2 Jan 2003 by Kay Parker McCary
Notations/Symbols/Footnotes
*
Unmarked grave
#
Reinterred grave from New Zion Cemetery
+
Reinterred grave from Robinson Cemetery
{ } Information from Obituary - Sabine County Reporter - Hemphill,
TX
^
Information from Social Security Death Index or Death Record
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