Croley Funeral Home

The company dates itself earlier than the plaque does. Its own history page says J. F. Croley founded Croley Funeral Home in 1883, while the plaque has him buying the hardware company in 1890 and adding undertaking. The page records later growth: a Gladewater location opened in 1995, and Grubbs-Loyd Funeral Home opened a Diana location in 1999 that was renamed Croley-Diana in 2023. A 1946 county history lists the Croleys among the family names long tied to Gilmer's life, alongside the Chandlers, Marshalls, Buies, Hoggs and Crosbys.

What the plaque says

Croley Funeral Home J. F. Croley purchased the Croley Hardware Company in 1890 and began an undertaking business as part of the hardware store services. In 1920 a partnership was formed to run the business, and in 1933 the Croley Burial Association was formed. Croley Cook, nephew of J. F. Croley, built a new funeral home in 1946-47. The structure included a chapel with a seating capacity for 200 people. In 1979 a larger chapel was built, and the facilities were renovated. The company continues to serve the community. (1997)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Lake Bob Sandlin State Park — 24 mi
  A 1987 state park on a 9,000-acre reservoir, where a Republic of Texas stockade called Fort Sherman stood in 1838 and the Caddo lived from A.D. 800 to 1860, now with fishing piers, trails and cabins.
• East Texas Oil Museum — 25 mi
  A Kilgore College museum that rebuilds the 1930s oil boom in a full-scale Boomtown with a general store, drugstore and newspaper office, plus dioramas, films and antiques given by East Texans.
• Daingerfield State Park — 25 mi
  A pine-and-hardwood park built in 1935-39 by a white and a Black Civilian Conservation Corps company, with a dammed lake, Bass Lodge and a 2.4-mile loop trail around the water.
• Tyler State Park — 26 mi
  A 985-acre park eight miles north of Tyler, built by the Civilian Conservation Corps from 1935 to 1941 around a 64-acre spring-fed lake, with more than 13 miles of trails.

More markers nearby

• Site of an Indian Village — steps away
• First United Methodist Church of Gilmer — steps away
• Upshur County, C. S. A. — steps away
• First Baptist Church of Gilmer — steps away