NACOGDOCHES COUNTY, TEXAS
ZION HILL BAPTIST CHURCH CEMETERY
The Zion Hill Baptist Church Cemetery is located on the south side
of Park Road just west of University Blvd. in the city of Nacogdoches.
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Zion Hill Baptist Church Cemetery Historical Marker
Zion Hill Baptist Church Cemetery
The Rev. Lawson Reed came to Nacogdoches in 1878 to find
no organized Baptist Church serving the Black community. For
a time, he attended the Union Church with other Baptists as well
as Presbyterians and Methodists, sometimes leading services
there. The Rev. Mr. Reed
prevailed upon local Baptists to organize
their
own church, and in 1879 they began to meet under a
bursh
arbor. Frank and Ellen Walton, Annie K. McClain, Jim
and Annie
Rigsby, Hariett Moore, Hattoe Vaughns,
Velma Williams
McCullough and the Reeds were the charter
members of the
church. The approach of winter forced
them to seek other
accommodations, and the Waltons gave two acres of
land for
a building.
Though the presence of the church and a number of
unmarked and undated graves suggest earlier interments at
this site, the earliest marked grave is that of
Julia Harris, who
died on February 8, 1897. Hers is
the only marked grave dating
from the 19th century.
The Zion Hill Baptist Church grew steadily from its inception
and by the 1890s the congregation required a larger structure.
Early members continued to be buried on this site until the burial
of Charley Blakey in 1945.
Among those buried here are the Rev. Lawson Reed (d. 1924),
whose grave is marked by two stones; John B. Liggins (d. 1919),
Amiel Rivers (d. 1932), and Jim Smith (d. 1938), who served in World
War I. There are several markers denoting members of fraternal
organizations. Over time, the cemetery fell into disrepair. In the
early 1970s a movement began to have the city assume
custodianship of the cemetery. The burial ground remains a
chronicle of the African American pioneers of Nacogdoches.
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