Rowlett Creek Cemetery

The man who platted the cemetery has a monument beside the chapel. According to Joy Gough, George White, who gave part of the land, was a surveyor who drew the plats for both Rowlett Creek Cemetery and Pecan Grove Memorial Park in McKinney, where he is buried. She also says this cemetery holds more Peters colonists than any other in the county. Gough repeats the claim that most Baptist churches in Collin County, and the First Baptist churches of Dallas and Fort Worth, came out of the church here, which is a tradition, not a documented count.

What the plaque says

Rowlett Creek Cemetery In 1836 Dr. Daniel Rowlett (1786-1848), a Kentuckian, came to Texas with his wife and six other families. Rowlett, a physician, lawyer, surveyor, and politician, settled near present Bonham. He located much of his large 1838 land grant in the fertile area along present Rowlett Creek. After meeting in homes and outdoors, seven charter members organized the Wilson Creek Church of United Baptists in 1848, under leadership of the Rev. David Myers. In 1852 the name became "Rowlett Creek Baptist Church". George White (1820-1886) deeded six acres at this site in 1861 for a meetinghouse. The following year Shadrick J. Jackson (1830-1863) and his wife Sophronia deeded an adjacent four acres. Soon lots were set aside for this cemetery. The earliest marked grave is that of pioneer Alfred Harrington in 1862. The second interment in 1862 was that of Charles Gough, who was on furlough from the Confederate Army. In 1895 the Rowlett Creek Cemetery Association was formed. Rowlett is believed to be the earliest Baptist church in Collin county. It became inactive in 1935 but had been influential in establishing many early churches, a number of which are still prominent in the North Texas area. (1979)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Heard Natural Science Museum & Wildlife Sanctuary — 7.4 mi
  A 289-acre sanctuary in McKinney that Bessie Heard founded at the age of 80, with five habitats, a 50-acre wetland and 6.5 miles of trails.
• Rockwall County Historical Foundation & Museum — 21 mi
  A small museum in Harry Myers Park that keeps the evidence on Rockwall's rock wall, sandstone dikes that geologists call natural and folk tales call built.
• Dallas Museum of Art — 23 mi
  A city art museum that began as the Dallas Art Association in 1903, grew up in Fair Park, and has stood in the Arts District since 1984 under a forty-foot barrel vault.
• Fair Park — 24 mi
  The State Fair of Texas grounds since 1886, where the 1936 Texas Centennial Exposition left one of the country's greatest concentrations of Art Deco exposition buildings.

More markers nearby

• Young Cemetery — 0.6 mi
• Allen Station of the Texas Electric Railway — 3.9 mi
• Allen Water Station — 4.1 mi
• Allen — 4.1 mi