Blackberry Community

The plaque ends with descendants returning for Macedonia Baptist Church's homecoming, and in recent years the church itself needed rescuing. The Navasota Examiner reported in July 2022 that the old building had deteriorated past use and regular services had stopped, while the September homecoming went on. Ever Johnson led the effort to bring worship back, and volunteers from Texas Baptist Men Builders framed a new building and installed its wiring. It was set for dedication at the homecoming of September 18, 2022, where Johnson credited the ancestors who put the church in the community.

What the plaque says

Blackberry Community Settlers mostly from the Lower South (Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, Georgia) settled this part of Grimes County near John's Creek. By the late 19th century, Blackberry became a largely African-American settlement. Most families raised livestock and such crops as cotton and corn. At its peak, the community also boasted a cotton gin, grist mill and stores. Macedonia Baptist Church dates from 1870; in 1899, William and Martha Burrell sold land to trustees A. W. Ruckett, J. L. Nickerson and Starling Baker. The church site was also an African-American school. Blackberry's population has declined since the Great Depression, and the school closed in the 1960s. Many descendants return during Macedonia Baptist Church's annual homecoming. 175 Years of Texas Independence * 1836-2011

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Fanthorp Inn State Historic Site — 9.6 mi
  A cedar-log dogtrot cabin of 1834 on the road through Anderson that grew into a seventeen-room inn and post office for travelers of the Republic, kept by one family until 1976.
• Navasota — 14 mi
  A railroad and cotton town where the La Bahia Road crossed the Navasota River, scarred by an 1865 explosion and yellow fever, and the home ground of the songster Mance Lipscomb.
• Star of the Republic Museum — 18 mi
  A star-shaped museum of the Republic of Texas years, 1836 to 1846, built at Washington-on-the-Brazos after a Brenham campaign and opened on March 1, 1970.
• Washington-on-the-Brazos State Historic Site — 19 mi
  The townsite on the Brazos where delegates met in a cold, unfinished hall in March 1836 to declare Texas independent, with Independence Hall rebuilt and Anson Jones's Barrington farm worked as in 1850.

More markers nearby

• Waller Cemetery — 3.7 mi
• Education in Plantersville — 4.5 mi
• John Montgomery — 4.8 mi
• Andrew Jackson Montgomery — 4.8 mi