Grove Hill Historical Marker Info
    Texas Historical Commission
     
    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. 
      Grove Hill Masonic Lodge
      Historical Marker information
      Texas State Historical Commission
      Located  one block south of US 69 near
         the corner of US 69 and College St.
      In Leonard ,Texas
           
                                Chartered in 1873 with fifteen
      members, Masonic  Lodge was organized in the Grove Hill
      community (3.5 mi.NE). The First Meeting-house was constructed there on  property purchased in connjunction 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.
       
      Back to the Grove Hill Cemetery Page
       
      Grove Hill Community Page-