Milburn-Gary House

Starrville began as the Gum Springs post office in 1849, a stop on the Dallas-Shreveport Road, named for a local baptismal and swimming hole, the Handbook of Texas says. A Methodist minister from Alabama, Joshua Starr, bought 640 acres in 1852 and sold town lots; the post office took the Starrville name in 1857. Bethel Baptist formed in 1852 under John Rasbury, the Starrville Female High School was chartered in 1856 and the Union Academy in 1860. The Masonic lodge met above the Methodist church until 1907, when it moved to Winona, and Starrville counted 75 people in 2000.

What the plaque says

Milburn-Gary House Anglo settlement of the Gum Springs area in Smith County was underway when the community name changed to Starrville in 1852, in honor of pioneer Russel Julius Starr. Located on the Dallas-Shreveport freight route, Starrville included a post office, school, Masonic Lodge and Bethel Baptist Church. The Rev. Williamson Milburn was appointed pastor of the Baptist Church in 1854. The Rev. Mr. Milburn bought land from Benjamin Harry in 1853 that was part of the A. J. LaGrone survey patented in 1850. This home was built by the Rev. Mr. Milburn in 1855. The structure was built with hand-picked knot-free lumber on a foundation put together with wooden pegs, and featured solid oak walls. Its wide doors and floor plan are indicative of a 19th-century house. Business owners W. D. and W. V. Hyer purchased the home and sold it to Jesse B. Gary, a local farmer, in 1880. John Henry Gary, Sr., bought the property from his father in 1900, and moved the house 400 yards north of its original location to access a better water supply. The home remained in the Gary family until 1964. The home was uninhabited for many years. It was moved to this site in 1995. (1996)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Tyler State Park — 6.0 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.
• Camp Ford Historic Park — 8.0 mi
  A free county park north of Tyler on the site of the largest Confederate prison camp west of the Mississippi, with a kiosk, an interpretive trail and a historical society museum downtown.
• Tyler Rose Garden and Rose Museum — 8.6 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.
• Goodman-LeGrand House and Museum — 8.6 mi
  A Tyler house begun in 1859 as four rooms, enlarged by the Goodman family over 73 years, and left to the city in 1939 with its furnishings, in a garden that fills a city block.

More markers nearby

• Antioch Baptist Church — 6.2 mi
• Smith County — 6.9 mi
• Sabine Methodist Church — 7.2 mi
• Pine Springs Baptist Church — 7.5 mi