Antioch Cemetery

A 1985 update of the Houston County cemetery book counted 303 marked graves at Antioch and 84 unnamed ones. The committee was Wadell Harrison, Frate Pickett and Lillian Gibson. The Antioch Cemetery Association began as a work crew, later sponsored a contract for the grounds work, and started an endowment fund in 1978. When the old church building became too dilapidated for safe use it was removed, and a pavilion with benches and picnic tables replaced it. Old cedars and crepe myrtle landmark the spot.

What the plaque says

Antioch Cemetery This graveyard has long been associated with the Antioch Primitive Baptist Church, which was organized in 1859. The first marked grave, that of Mary J. Cramer, is dated 1860. Antioch Cemetery also contains unmarked burial sites, many of which are for transient sawmill workers who lived in the area while the 4C Mill was in operation at Ratcliff. The communities of Ratcliff, Hagerville, Kennard, and Stubblefield continue to use the cemetery for the burial of descendants of Antioch Church members. (1985)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Ratcliff Lake Recreation Area — 1.6 mi
  A Davy Crockett National Forest lake of about 45 acres, built by the CCC in 1936 from a sawmill log pond, with a swimming beach, camping and the start of the 20-mile Four-C Trail.
• Mission Tejas State Park — 13 mi
  A 661-acre pine-forest park on the old El Camino Real near Weches, with a 1930s replica of the 1690 mission, the Rice Family Log Home and trails past remnants of the Spanish road.
• Caddo Mounds State Historic Site — 16 mi
  Three earthen mounds of an ancestral Caddo village and ceremonial center on the old El Camino Real, settled about A.D. 800 and still sacred to Caddo people, with a grass house and visitor center.
• Texas Forestry Museum — 25 mi
  A free Lufkin museum, opened in 1976, with sawmill-town exhibits, an oxen-drawn log cart, a locomotive and a 100-foot 1936 fire tower moved from the Conroe area.

More markers nearby

• Pioneer Settlers of Coltharp — 1.0 mi
• Allen Chapel Community — 1.1 mi
• Ratcliff — 1.5 mi
• Four C Mill — 1.5 mi