Oakland Cumberland Presbyterian Church

Oakland, the Handbook of Texas says, was a farming community on Farm Road 2653, settled by the early 1900s, when its school enrolled thirty-eight pupils in 1905. By the mid-1930s it had the school, two churches and scattered houses. After World War II most residents moved away, the school joined the Sulphur Springs district, and by the early 1960s all that remained was the church and a few houses. The Handbook's settlement date of the early 1900s comes well after the Stewarts' 1882 arrival and the 1896 meetinghouse the plaque describes.

What the plaque says

Oakland Cumberland Presbyterian Church After the Civil War (1861-65), during the turbulence of Reconstruction, the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in Rising Star, Alabama, was burned. Members W. A. (Willis) (d. 1920) and Nannie Stewart sought a place where they could worship as they pleased. They came to Hopkins County in 1882 with their seven children and ex-slaves, Abraham and Chloe. Stewart bought 301 acres and built a two-room dogtrot house (3 mi. NW). The family continued their custom of evening singing, prayer, and Bible study. Soon neighbors joined the services. In 1883 a circuit rider, the Rev. Felice Johnson, baptized Mollie Bagget in the Stewart home. When nine more converts joined in 1884, Stewart received permission for services to be held in Oakland School. In 1896 Mrs. M. A. (Aunt Polly) Young gave this two-acre site for a church. Stewart and his Uncle Frank Herman drew the plans and with community help erected this meetinghouse. The congregation continued to grow and Stewart served as church elder until his death. During services in 1944 a fire started in the church loft and caused extensive damage. The fellowship repaired the structure and the Oakland Cumberland Presbyterian Church continues to serve the area. (1979)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Cooper Lake State Park — 11 mi
  Two units on Jim Chapman Lake, a Corps reservoir proposed in the late 1930s, stalled by a lawsuit until 1984 and dedicated in 1991, with a 10.5-mile equestrian trail and wildlife land around it.
• Audie Murphy / American Cotton Museum — 20 mi
  A Greenville museum of Hunt County's military heroes, including Audie Murphy, and of cotton, which keeps the engine of what it says was the world's largest inland cotton compress.
• Sam Rayburn House State Historic Site — 36 mi
  The two-story farmhouse west of Bonham that the longtime Speaker of the House built in 1916 and kept as his home, left as he lived in it and open as a museum since 1975.

More markers nearby

• Stewart Cemetery — 0.4 mi
• Mt. Zion Churches and Cemetery — 3.9 mi
• Site of Plunkett School — 5.4 mi
• Cumby — 6.6 mi