Germany

The Handbook of Texas says the name apparently came from freedmen's talk of a German family named Grounds, who settled nearby between 1829 and 1833; Grounds Cemetery is still in the area. Jacob Masters had brought his family and enslaved people to the neighborhood around 1828. John Burt is thought to be the first freedman to settle, on December 21, 1871. He and Jane Benton, widow of Van Benton, whom he married in 1882, gave land around 1883 for a church, school and cemetery. In 1921 Alonzo and Jennie Berryman sold land for the first regular Black school.

What the plaque says

Germany Settled by families of former slaves following the Civil War, this community received its name, according to local tradition, in reference to the homeland of the German immigrant family that had settled in the area in the 1830s. Several freedmen, including George Smith, John Burt, Lewis Hall, and Van Benton and their families, obtained pre-emption land grants in the area in the 1870s and 1880s, and soon a close-knit community was formed. Although the Germany community did not have its own post office and never was incorporated formally, its citizens organized the New Pleasant Hill Baptist Church and a public school. The church still serves a loyal congregation. The school held classes in a building shared with the church. It was expanded, possibly with Julius Rosenwald Fund assistance, and continued in operation until 1949. Still a rural community, Germany is home to a few resident families and serves as a gathering place for former residents. Many former citizens are returned here for burial in the community cemetery, which dates to the 1880s. Maintained by citizens and volunteers, the cemetery contains marked and unmarked graves of pioneer settlers and their descendants. (1997)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• 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 State Railroad Excursion Train — 25 mi
  A round trip of about 25 miles of track between the Palestine and Rusk depots through the Piney Woods, on a line built by prison labor and reopened as a tourist railroad in 1976.

More markers nearby

• San Pedro Community — 3.2 mi
• Original Site of the Joseph R. Rice Log Cabin — 6.3 mi
• The Edens-Madden Massacre — 6.5 mi
• Daniel McLean and John Sheridan — 6.5 mi