Spring Creek Park Cemetery West Chappel Methodist Episcopal Cemetery

CEMETERY FACTS

Creation and designation of community and family cemeteries in the 19th century generally maxed out at one acre in size. The first City of Houston public cemetery purchased in 1840 was five acres and became full and closed by 1879. Cemetery companies generally purchased 50 to 100 acres to develop a public or religious commercial business beginning about 1870. Most dedicated community or farm site cemeteries throughout Harris County between 1830 and 1900 adopted no more than an acre for community or family burials.

Henry Scherer sold six and six-tenth (6.6) acres of his farmland, aligned on a high ridge south of Spring Creek, to the local West Chappel (SP) Methodist Episcopal Church of Spring Creek for $19.80, February 23, 1884.1 Henry Scherer noted in the deed his “desire to promote public morality and religion” in the sale of the 6.6 acres. Joe Lofin and A. Springfield, Trustees of the Church of Hockley Circuit paid the fee for the land. Matt Steussy (Steuss, Seuss) and J. M Bearden, Jr. signed as witnesses to the deed transaction. Henry Scherer filed the deed with P. Christian, the Notary Public for Harris County and Justice of the Peace at Cypress, nearly two months later. Two months after Henry Scherer went to Cypress for a Notary seal, it appears that he took the Houston Texas Central (HTC) train from Cypress Station to Houston and filed the deed at the Courthouse while there on June 18, 1884. The Clerk recorded the deed on the same day, stamping and signing the original for Scherer to return to the Church Trustees. Once the HTC had begun 1856 rail service in northwestern Harris County, the planters and farmers utilized the rail to travel southeast to Houston and Galveston or northwest along the Brazos River plantations as far as Navasota.

Seventeen years following the cemetery deed, September 26, 1901, Henry Scherer’s widow, Ernestine Scherer, sold the remaining 179-acre Scherer farmstead to William Scherer noting, “of which seven (7) acres sold by our father Henry Scherer to a colored church congregation for

1 Harris County Deed Records [HCDR] 30/171).

Spring Creek Park Cemetery West Chappel Methodist Episcopal Cemetery

cemetery.”2 Five years later in 1906, when William Scherer leased the Scherer farmland to a timber company, he stated in the lease that the 179 acres was less seven (7) acres as “conveyed by Henry (Scherer) to a colored church for cemetery purposes.”3 The Scherer’s were part of the German families who arrived in Texas between 1847 and 1852 settling in the Spring Creek and Willow Creek area, all having access to the perennially of creek water.

Once the West Chappel M. E. Church acquired the 6.6-acre tract, the Church planned to build on the site and provide services for community and membership. The Church does not appear to have developed a significant structure on the acreage. The Pastor of the Huffsmith Circuit, C. H Moore, along with G. W. Carter, the District Superintendent of the Navasota District for the West Chappel M. E. Church signed a Mineral Lease with H. E. Nutter in December 1932.4 In October, the Standard Oil & Gas Company assigned all the leases to Amerada Petroleum Company.5 In February the next year, Amerada issued a release of the lease to the Church.6

Standard Oil & Gas Company requested a second mineral lease less than six months later from the West Chappel M. E. Church, July 3, 1933, covering the 6.6-acre cemetery tract. The Superintendent of the Navasota District, G. W. Carter, Pastor of the Huffsmith Circuit, and Trustees of the Church: C. H. Moore, Joe Whitfield, Henry Wright, Henderson Thompson, James Jones, G. F. Smith and Calhoun Smith acted on behalf of the Church. Witnesses to the signatures included: R. C. Rochelle, A. H. Keefer and E. B. Bell. The District Superintendent, G. W. Carter had a Waller County Notary Public certify the signatures as authentic for the Church on June 20, 1933. E. B Bell took the signed lease to Harris County for registration at the County Clerk’s office several later.7

In 1958, Harris County purchased 107.44 acres of the former Scherer Farm from the present owner, H. E. Brown, for $21,488. The purpose was to develop a park, first known as Brown

2 HCDR: 129/ 537 September 7, 1901. 3 HCDR: 210/392 February 24, 1906. 4 HCDR: 218/549, December 30, 1932, filed January 17, 1933. 5 HCDR: 230/540 Contract Records, October 14, 1933. 6 HCDR: 95446 Dd, February 5, 1937. 7 HCDR: 231/267, June 20, 1933, filed July 3, 1933.

Spring Creek Park Cemetery West Chappel Methodist Episcopal Cemetery

Park, later re-named Spring Creek Park.8 Eleven years later, the West Chappel M. E. Church sold the 6.6 acre cemetery to Harris County in 1969 with the understanding that the County could utilize, without additional compensation, any sand, stone, earth, gravel, caliches or materials upon and under said land except the Oil, Gas and Sulphur for the construction and maintenance of the road system of Harris County. The Trustees signing the deed included Mollie Pyles, Andrew Smith, Buster Mays, John Wright and William Lakey.9

The Trustees attested their signatures to the deed on July 11 when filed with a Notary Public10. The cemetery land connected on the northeast corner at Spring Creek to the Brown Park land acquired by the County June 26, 1956 from H. D. Brown.11 Thus the Scherer farmstead became Harris County Brown Park, later changed to Spring Creek Park.

One stone found on the cemetery site has “A. W.” clearly carved on the surface of the broken marker. Whereas the Trustees of the West Chappel M.E. Church who signed the deed of sale of the cemetery tract, most likely would have been descendants of families buried in the cemetery.

The Scherer farm site sold to Harris County had Mulberry, Black Jack Oak, Red Oak, Walnut, Sassafras, Hickory, Elm, Post Oak, Pin Oak, Loblolly Pine, Pecan, Juniper virginiana (Cedar) and Pignut trees on the south side of Spring Creek throughout the riparian alignment of the farm. The native tree vegetation thrived about a mile south of the creek, having springs sweetening the flowing water from both sides of the fine sandy creek. Many of the same native trees flourish throughout the Spring Creek Cemetery.

8 HCDR: 3183/696 June 25, 1956 filed July 11, recorded August 2. 9 HCDR: 7747/519: July 6, 1969, recorded September 9. 10 HCDR: 7747/519 July 6 1969, filed July 11, recorded September 9. 11 HCDR: 3183/696, June 24, 1956 filed July 11, recorded August 2.

Spring Creek Park Cemetery West Chappel Methodist Episcopal Cemetery

BACKGROUND HISTORY

Spring Creek Cemetery came out of a 350 acre farm reduced to 200-acres and known as the Scherer Farm. The 350 acres evolved from the western 1111 acres of a league (4428 acres) survey deeded to Joseph House, Jr. by the Ayuntamiento of San Felipe de Austin. Planning a farm, the legal acreage amounted to a Mexican league, previously surveyed by John Borden in 1824 to expand Stephen F. Austin’s Colony. Austin had Borden survey and map six tracts of 4428 acres each to cover both sides of Spring Creek for future designation to immigrants from the United States.

Joseph House’s father, Joseph House, Sr. (1770 – 1840), was from Effingham, Georgia and married Mary Polly Robinet (1777-1850) on April 30, 1800 when he moved to the Mississippi Territory. The United States had created a section of the former Western Great Britain as the Mississippi Territory in 1798. The United States waited 19 years before designating the Mississippi Territory as a State of the Union in 1817. Joseph Sr. and Mary Polly had three sons and one daughter born while living in the Mississippi Territory: John P. House (1801 – 1845), Joseph House, Jr. (1804 – 1843), Joycey House (1807 - ?), and William Ransom House (1809 - 1861). Joseph House, Sr.’s father, grandfather and great-grandfather all were given the first name of “Robert.” Joseph, Sr. moved his family from Mississippi to St Landry Parish, Louisiana after 1810, where the family’s youngest son and last child, Mumford House (1816 – 1882), was born. Apparently, Joseph, Sr. desired to be in a State of the United States instead of a Territory. The 1812 Louisiana statehood act began at the time of the inception of the War of 1812. Following the independence of Mexico from Spain in 1821, many planters along the Gulf Coast, including the House sons, moved to Mexican Texas, looking for better cotton producing land. Their father and mother came to Texas with Joseph, Jr. visiting at San Felipe de Austin in 1830.

Setting at his 4428 acre plantation on Spring Creek, Joseph House, Jr. constructed his Texas homestead known as the ”Island Plantation” in the eastern half of the 4428 acre survey, south of Spring Creek. Having established a sawmill and grist mill on the Creek in the western one fourth

Spring Creek Park Cemetery West Chappel Methodist Episcopal Cemetery

of the survey, the Loblolly Pine and Juniperus virginiana (called Cedros by the Spanish and Cedar by the immigrants) trees were demolished from the southwestern portion of the House plantation for development of log cabins, wagons, and barns. In 1831, Longhorn cattle became Joseph’s important source for butter as well as stock sales. The family and local planters conducted annual roundups to brand the cattle that roamed the local prairies.

Spring Creek Park Cemetery came out of an 1111 acre tract acquired by Ransom House from his brother Joseph House’s Plantation in 1840. Following over twelve years of operating a sawmill on the western quarter of his Plantation, Joseph House sold the 1111 acre western quarter of his league to brother Ransom House for $1000, January 22, 1840.12 The 1111 acres stretched from the south to the north boundaries of the House Survey, crossing Spring Creek to the northern portion. Ransom House surveyed and sold the 1111 acre tract into several small farm tracts, each being about 200 to 300 acres each. The farm surveys extended from the north side of the creek and the north boundary line of the House survey to the south boundary line of the House survey, below Spring Creek.

The same date in 1840 that Joseph House sold the 1111 acre tract to brother Ransom House, January 22; Ransom sold 350 acres on his east boundary line of the quarter league to Thomas J. Halsell. The 350 acre tract mentioned that the Mumford House land was to the east of the 350 acres; indicating Joseph House had issued a bond for title to his brother many moons previous.13 In addition, Joseph had sold acreage on the eastern quarter of the House Survey, leaving only 1000 acres for the Plantation homestead in the center-eastern section of the property according to the Probate Records Inventory filed on October 16, 1844.14 The 350-acre tract Halsell farm included the future Spring Creek Park 107-acre purchase by Harris County, south of Spring Creek as well as the cemetery 6.6 acres.

Within two weeks of his purchase of the 350 acre farm tract, Halsell sold the 150 acres north of Spring Creek to James B. Hogan, leaving 200 acres south of Spring Creek. Thomas Halsell

12 HCDR: N/ 130, Signed January 22, 1840, filed December 7, 1848. 13 HCDR: K/ 105, signed January 22, 1840, filed Jan 17, 1846. 14 Harris County Probate Records: H/ 130.

Spring Creek Park Cemetery West Chappel Methodist Episcopal Cemetery

made a profit of $100 in the sale totaling $500.15 The acreage is now in Montgomery County, Texas. James B. Hogan had no neighbors to the north and west of his tract on the north side of Spring Creek, but did have John W. Asbury to the east, indicating that Mumford had rented the northern portion of his 1000 acres to Asbury.

There is no recorded deed in Harris County Clerk’s Office from Halsell to James R. Land and his wife. However, when Ransom House sells the property again in June 1853, Ransom notes in the deed that the 200 acres is the same land sold to Thomas Halsell by Ransom and from Halsell to James R. Land.16

Thomas J. Halsell was born about 1815 in Tennessee in a large farming family, his wife Margaret being born in Alabama, January 15, 1812. Margaret and Thomas had one son, William H., born in Alabama and two daughters, both born in Texas, Elizabeth and Hannah. Thomas’ brother David S. Halsell, age 20, his father, Bordiman Halsell, age 50, and his mother Temperance Halsell, age 50; all born in Tennessee, came to live on Thomas’ farm in 1840. The price of the 350 acres being over a dollar per acre indicates that a small cabin was located on the property. Since Halsell’s parents and brother accompanied him to Texas, the family appears to have constructed a second small cabin on the south side of Spring Creek in the 200-acre survey.

James R. Land and his wife, Patsy, arrived to Texas from Shelby County, Tennessee in January 1840. “Patsy” was the sister of Thomas Halsell. Martha Melinda Halsell Land used the nickname “Patsy.” James Richard Land and “Patsy” were married in Shelby County Tennessee December 26, 1835. Patsy was 17 years old at her marriage. James, sometimes “J.R.” former wife died in Shelby County following the birth of a daughter Sabrina on September 2, 1831. Patsy was pregnant with her first child when she arrived with nine year old Sabrina and James in Harris County, Texas. On June 4, 1840, Patsy gave birth to Martha Melinda Halsell Land her first daughter born in Harris County at Spring Creek.

15 HCDR: K/104, signed February 12, 1840, filed January 19, 1846. 16 HCDRP/ 338 filed June 25, 1863.

Spring Creek Park Cemetery West Chappel Methodist Episcopal Cemetery

In January 1844, James and Patsy Land, with their two girls, left the Spring Creek farm for Victoria County. About the same time, Thomas J. Halsell, along with his wife Margaret and their four children moved to Walker County. Sometime between 1840 and January 1844, Thomas J. Halsell had deeded the 200 acres on Spring Creek to James R. and Patsy Land. James R. and Patsy Land deeded the 200-acre farm on Spring Creek to Henry Dillard for a dollar an acre New Year’s Day, 1844.17

Henry H. Dillard was a cabinet-maker born in North Carolina about 1823. His older brother William M. Dillard lived with him, also being a cabinet-maker. William was born in North Carolina in 1816. William’s bride, Jane, age 22 was born in Illinois. In October 1847, Henry Dillard enlisted in the Texas Mounted Volunteers under the Command of Henry E McCulloch. The Muster Roll described Henry H., as having light hair, grey eyes, and being five feet ten inches tall. The Dillard brothers stayed at Spring Creek doing cabinet construction for neighbors until about 1849 when they moved to Walker County, near the Halsell family, to continue cabinet construction.

Dillard sold the 200 acre farm back to Ransom House in 1849 and appears to have rented the former Halsell farm to William Kruger. Kruger had recently arrived with wife Frederika, age 27, and daughter Frederika, age 2, from Germany. While the Kruger family tended the 200-acre farm, living in one of the cabins, Fredericka had her first son, William, born in December 1849.18

On April 10, 1853, Ransom House sold the 200-acre former Halsell farm to John Scherer, noting that the Jacob Metzler family from Germany lived to the east.19 Ransom noted that in the deed the 200-acre farm had been Halsell, Land, and Dillard property in previous years. Brothers, George and John Scherer, arrived from Germany between 1847 and 1851, settling on farms in the Joseph House survey. John Scherer’s brother, George, lived in the western part of the House League where the old House saw mill had been under operation at Spring Creek. George acquired the farm of John Scherer prior to 1870. No deeds have been located in Harris County

17 HCDR: J/365, January 1, 1844 $200, filed June 9, 1845. 18 Harris County 1850 Census page 955 Family No. 586. 19 HCDR: P/338: April 10 1853.

Spring Creek Park Cemetery West Chappel Methodist Episcopal Cemetery

for the sale by John Scherer to George Scherer for the farmlands. In 1870, the children of George Scherer had all married and acquired parts of the farm lands from their retiring parents. In 1878, George Scherer sold the 200 acre farm to his son, Henry Scherer. The instrument was not filed in Harris County until 1933, having been filed previously in Montgomery County Deed Records, Volume 2 Page 444.20 Six years later, son, Henry Scherer, deeded 6.6 acres, located on a slight rise south of Spring Creek, to the West Chappel Methodist Episcopal Church, April 10, 1884 (HCDR: 30/171).

20 HCDR: 855/413: June 24, 1878, filed March 28, 1933, recorded June 7, 1933.

Spring Creek Park Cemetery West Chappel Methodist Episcopal Cemetery

CEMETERY ABSTRACT

Joseph House acquired 4428 acres of land, on both sides of Spring Creek, through an 1831 title issued to him by the Mexican Government (Harris County Deed Records [HCDR] 927/246). Joseph House sold the western one-fourth of the league to his son, Ransom House, January 22, 1840, retaining the eastern three-fourths of the survey (HCDR: N/130). Ransom House surveyed the 1111-acre tract into several small farm tracts, each being about 200 to 300 acres each. A 200-acre farm became part of the Scherer family farmstead that involved brothers, George and John Scherer, who arrived from Germany between 1847 and 1851. In 1870, the children of George Scherer had married and, by 1878, son Henry Scherer acquired parts of the farm lands from his retiring parents. Six years later,, Henry Scherer, deeded 6.6 acres out of the northeastern section of his 200 acre farm, located on a slight rise south of Spring Creek, to the West Chappel (SP) Methodist Episcopal Church, April 10, 1884 (HCDR: 30/171). The deed stated his purpose was from a “desire to promote public morality and religion.” Sixteen years later, in 1901, Ernestine Scherer, surviving widow of Henry Scherer, along with her children, sold the balance of the Scherer farm to William Scherer. The deed noted that “seven acres” of the family farm had been “sold by our father Henry Scherer to a colored church congregation for a cemetery (HCDR: 129/537).” Following 85 years of ownership, the West Chappel Methodist Episcopal Church of Spring Creek sold the 6.6 acre cemetery to Harris County on July 6, 1969 (HCDR: 7747/519). The 1969 field notes mention the east line of the 6.6 acre tract is the west line of a subdivision known as Spring Creek Valley Estates Subdivision. The south line of the cemetery connects to Spring Creek Park with the northwest cemetery alignment bordering Spring Creek. The 6.6 acre cemetery has remained in the ownership of Harris County for the past 44 years connected to the Harris County 107.44 acre Spring Creek Park site purchased June 11, 1956 from H. D. Brown (HCDR: 3183/696). Most community or farm-site cemeteries throughout Harris County, between 1830 and 1900, adopted no more than an acre for community or family burials. The 1884 cemetery, dedicated to a local African American Church, operated for nearly 140 years to provide slumber to early

Spring Creek Park Cemetery West Chappel Methodist Episcopal Cemetery

Black immigrants. The Spring Creek Park Cemetery reflects the oldest identified cemetery of this nature in Harris County.