Texas Historical Marker #08916
John Cadwallader Neale. (Apr. 20, 1838 - Dec. 13, 1906) Born in middle Tennessee, John Cadwallader Neale enlisted in the Confederate Army during the Civil War and served with the 9th Tennessee Cavalry. In 1877, three years after he migrated to Fannin County, he purchased a nearby farm. He later opened a family grocery in Leonard and became a leading businessman of the community. He was also a Mason and a church deacon. Twice married, Neale was the father of fourteen children. #8916
?, Leonard, TX, United States
Texas Historical Marker #08873
Joseph F. Fenner. Star and Wreath Texas War for Independence veteran. Member Shackelford's Company, Colonel Fannin's command, 1836. Erected by the State of texas, 1962 #8873
?, Leonard, TX, United States
Texas Historical Marker #08885
First United Methodist Church of Leonard. This brick structure was built as the second sanctuary for the Leonard Methodist congregation, which was organized three years after the founding of the town in 1880. Completed in 1906, it was constructed during the pastorates of the rev. E. G. Roberts and the Rev. S. P. Ulrich. Three years later the building was dedicated free of debt at a special service which included a sermon by Bishop W. B. Murrah. The styling features Gothic revival detailing. RTHL - 1980 #8885
206 N. Main St., Leonard, TX, United States
Texas Historical Marker #08938
R. E. (Bob) Stokes Homestead. In 1895 R. E. (Bob) Stokes (1865-1944), his wife Ada, and their children migrated from Mississippi to Hickory Creek community in Fannin County. Stokes purchased this farm in 1901 and erected this house the following year. Nearby there was a log barn and a two-room workers' house.The family had ten children. Stokes served as trustee of the Bralley School and helped erect a new schoolhouse and Bethel Baptist Church building. Peddlers traveled dirt roads which Stokes helped maintain with a drag hitched to four mules. #8938
?, Leonard, TX, United States
Texas Historical Marker #08929
Savage. William Hamilton "Uncle Billy" Savage (1822-1909) and his wife Elizabeth (Henson) moved to this area in 1869. Due to bad road conditions, they often stocked extra supplies and sold them to their neighbors. Their store became the center of Savage community (2.5 mi. E). The village had a doctor, blacksmith, cotton gin, stores, school, church, and a post office established in 1891. Savage began to decline after World War I (1917-18) when it was bypassed by construction of new roads in the area. Annual reunion activities are held in Leonard (3 mi. SW). (1980) #8929
?, Leonard, TX, United States
Texas Historical Marker #08901
Indian Creek Baptist Church and Cemetery. The oldest readable gravestone in this burial ground bears the date 1870, four years before the founding of the Indian Creek Baptist Church. Worship services were first held in a schoolhouse 1/4 mile south of this site. Dock Holcomb donated this property adjacent to the cemetery, and a church building was completed in 1882 using lumber hauled by wagon from Jefferson. For over a century the burial ground was under the direct care of the congregation. An annual cemetery decoration day was begun in 1900. (Historic Texas Cemetery medallion added - designated 2004) #8901
?, Leonard, TX, United States
Texas Historical Marker #08867
East Shady Grove Baptist Church. Organized Oct. 26, 1884, by 18 members who met at nearby school to found a missionary Baptist church. T. P. Reece was the first of 25 pastors here. The Sunday School was founded Feb. 22, 1885. Dedication of present church was July 16, 1911. #8867
?, Leonard, TX, United States
Texas Historical Marker #08904
Dr. William Chamberlayne Jones. (Aug. 31, 1829 - June 11, 1903) A native of Alabama, William Chamberlayne Jones migrated to Texas in 1852 and resided near the Monkstown settlement in northeastern Fannin County. Trained as an attorney, he sold his Red River plantation after the Civil War and began studying medicine in New Orleans. He later served this area as a physician in the Grove Hill and Leonard communities. Jones and his wife Ellen O'Meara (Birmingham) had fifteen children. #8904
?, Leonard, TX, United States
Texas Historical Marker #08895
Grove Hill Masonic Lodge. Chartered in 1873 with fifteen members, this Masonic Lodge was organized in the Grove Hill community (3.5 mi. NE). The first meetinghouse was constructed there on property purchased in conjunction with the Grove Hill School District, which used the facility for classes. The Lodge moved to Leonard in 1882, shortly after the town was founded. Meetings were conducted in the city hall until a separate Lodge hall was built on the square in 1890. Other buildings later served the Lodge, which has included many prominent leaders of Grove Hill and Leonard. #8895
?, Leonard, TX, United States
Texas Historical Marker #08894
Grove Hill. The earliest settler in this area was George w. Smith, a native of Georgia, who moved here in 1844. By the early 1850s, a community had developed and a post office was established under the name Oak Hill. The first church, a Baptist congregation, was organized in 1855 at the home of pioneer settler Joseph Ring. During the Civil War several residents formed a Confederate militia unit known as the Oak Hill Home Guard. The first church building, completed in 1869, was also used for Masonic Lodge meetings and school classes. In 1878 William Thomas Clark, F. K. Taylor, and T. C. Cobb, trustees of the Methodist Episcopal Church, purchased four acres at this site for a community schoolhouse, sanctuary, and cemetery. The earliest marked grave in the community burial ground is that of William B. A. Thomas (d. 1862). Other graves include those of pioneer settlers and at least one former slave, Jack Sudderth (1799-1898). The settlement of Grove Hill began to decline in the early 1880s after the nearby railroad town of Leonard (3.5 mi. SW) was established. The Masonic Lodge moved there soon after and the school merged with the Leonard District in 1942. #8894
?, Leonard, TX, United States
Texas Historical Marker #08942
Valley Creek. The first permanent settlement in this area began in 1869 when eleven Presbyterian families migrated here from New York. Organized by Howard L. Parmele and others, including his brother-in-law Samuel F. B. Morse, the inventor of the telegraph, the colony was formed for the establishment of a Presbyterian U.S.A. mission. Land for the settlement was located near the site of Waller Wells, an early campground used by freight haulers operating between Sherman and the East Texas port of Jefferson. Named for a nearby stream, Valley Creek became a thriving community in the 1870s under the direction of Howard Parmele, who established a mercantile store, sawmill, and cotton gin here. The town also included a school, hotel, post office, drugstore, grist mill, barbershop, doctors, churches, and a blacksmith shop. With the assistance of dr. d. H. Dodson, an Iowa minister and educator, the local Presbyterian U.S.A. church was formally organized in 1875. Bypassed by rail lines in 1880, the town declined. Businesses were moved to Leonard (3 mi. S), where many former Valley Creek residents became prominent leaders. Only a church building and a cemetery remain at the site of the pioneer Valley Creek community. #8942
?, Leonard, TX, United States
Texas Historical Marker #08908
Leonard. Settlers began arriving in this area in the 1840s and 1850s. Solomon L. Leonard (1811-1861) planned to move here from Missouri because of his sympathy with the Confederate cause. Before his death, he accumulated holdings of 10,000 acres on the prairie around Wildcat Thicket, where fugitives and outlaws often hid. Bob Lee (1834-1869), a leader in the Lee-Peacock feud, and a Confederate Army captain, was ambushed in the thicket by Union sympathizers. In 1880 when the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railroad came through, the Leonard heirs had the 100-acre townsite of Leonard laid out. They donated land for a depot, streets, a small park, and this town square. On July 22, 1880, a public auction took place here to sell town lots. A picnic was held and continues as an annual event. Mark Daniels bought the first lot and erected a saloon. Soon there was a hotel, a post office, and "The Graphic" newspaper. By 1881 a schoolhouse was built and area churches moved into town. Leonard was incorporated in 1889 and the town boundaries were extended one-half mile in each direction from the city hall building on the town square. For years Leonard has been the marketing center of this agricultural area. #8908
?, Leonard, TX, United States
Texas Historical Marker #08882
First Presbyterian Church of Leonard. This congregation was organized as a mission of the Presbyterian Church, U.S.A., in 1875 at Valley Creek (3 mi. N) through the efforts of H. L. Parmele, the community's founder and leading merchant. The Rev. DeCosta Howard Dodson, a noted Christian educator, became the first pastor. After a spring storm damaged the church building in 1883, the congregation moved to the new town of Leonard, created by the coming of the Denison and Southeastern Railroad. They built the town's first church building on the corner of Houston and Main streets. In 1905 Leonard Presbyterian Church merged with the local Cumberland Presbyterian Church, which had been organized at Grove Hill (3.5 mi. NE) in 1870. The Rev. N. M. Grafton became the new pastor of the First Presbyterian Church, as it was named after the union. The church structure on this site was used for worship by the Cumberland Presbyterian congregation and continues in use today. Additional facilities were built as membership increased. Members here have included pioneer settlers and prominent community leaders who made significant contributions to the area's development and heritage. #8882
?, Leonard, TX, United States