Holly Springs United Methodist Church

The Handbook of Texas describes Holly Springs, ten miles southeast of Canton, as settled in the 1850s and, by some accounts, part of a wider community around the Cox Cemetery. It says an early church served as a school until 1856, that Robert K. Gibbs gave land for the Holly Springs Methodist Episcopal Church, South, in 1860, and that W. E. and Cornelia J. Roberts deeded land for a local cemetery in 1863. By 1987 only the church, the cemetery and scattered homes marked the townsite, the school having joined Martins Mill by the 1950s.

What the plaque says

Holly Springs United Methodist Church HOLLY SPRINGS UNITED METHODIST CHURCH LOCATED 10 MILES SOUTHEAST OF CANTON IN VAN ZANDT COUNTY, THE HOLLY SPRINGS UNITED METHODIST CHURCH HAS SERVED THE COMMUNITY FOR OVER 160 YEARS. THE CHURCH WAS ORGANIZED IN 1852 AND IS NAMED FOR THE NATIVE HOLLY TREES AND FRESH WATER SPRINGS NEAR THE ORIGINAL SITE OF THE CHURCH, TWO MILES WEST OF THE CURRENT LOCATION. THE ORIGINAL STRUCTURE WAS A SMALL BOARD BUILDING USED FOR BOTH CHURCH AND SCHOOL WHERE MEMBERS RELIED ON COMMUNITY LIVING AND FARMING. IT IS ONE OF THE OLDEST CHURCHES OF ANY DENOMINATION IN THE AREA. IN 1859, MEMBERS DECIDED TO MOVE TO THE PRESENT LOCATION, WHERE IT CONTINUES TO BE AN INFLUENTIAL SPIRITUAL BEACON IN THE COMMUNITY. (2014)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Purtis Creek State Park — 14 mi
  A 1,582-acre park straddling the Henderson and Van Zandt county line, built around a 355-acre lake with no-wake fishing, borrowed tackle, a 4.1-mile hike-and-bike trail and a nature path.
• Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center — 15 mi
  A Texas Parks and Wildlife hatchery and visitor center in Athens where visitors can borrow tackle and fish a stocked pond, watch native species in gallery tanks and ride a tram around the hatchery.
• Tyler Rose Garden and Rose Museum — 27 mi
  More than 38,000 rose bushes of about 600 cultivars in a free city garden, beside a museum of the Texas Rose Festival, which began in 1933, and of the rose industry.
• Governor Hogg Shrine — 31 mi
  Quitman's 27-acre city park, once a state historical park, where two houses tied to James Stephen Hogg's marriage stand beside an arboretum, a nature walk and the grounds of the Old Settlers Reunion.

More markers nearby

• Cox Cemetery — 1.0 mi
• Lexie Dean Robertson — 1.8 mi
• Ben Wheeler Community — 4.1 mi
• Morgan G. Sanders — 4.2 mi