Harmony Baptist Church and Cemetery

The plaque's 1924 church is gone. The Navasota Examiner reported in November 2023 that the old Harmony Baptist building, more than a century old, had been torn down, a loss taken up that month by the Grimes County Historical Commission. The graveyard remains, and it has two parts. The Texas Historical Commission's cemetery atlas records separate white and Black cemeteries at the church, and the Examiner's columnist noted that both Black and white residents are buried here, hoping the ground would be cared for. Visitors now find the graves, not the building the plaque describes.

What the plaque says

Harmony Baptist Church and Cemetery Soon after John Moore McGinty (1823-1888) and his wife Mary Loretta Brown settled in Stoneham in 1853, they organized the Grimes Prairie Baptist Church. About 1859 the congregation moved to a schoolhouse in this area and changed the name to "Harmony". This property was acquired from Blake and Peggy Brantley, and the first church house erected in 1870. Upon the death of McGinty, his wife and son deeded the cemetery land which had been in use for years. About 1924 this building was completed. Services were held here until the 1930s. (1979)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Navasota — 5.9 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.
• Fanthorp Inn State Historic Site — 7.5 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.
• Star of the Republic Museum — 10 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 — 11 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

• John Montgomery — 4.1 mi
• Andrew Jackson Montgomery — 4.1 mi
• The Stoneham Cemetery — 4.2 mi
• Stoneham Methodist Church — 5.2 mi