Site of Chesser Valley Community

Mullin, about four miles northeast, stands on Mullin Creek, which rises in central Mills County two miles north of the Duran Cemetery and runs southwest for twelve miles to Brown Creek, joined by Farmers Creek three miles above its mouth. Its country is steep slopes and benches with shallow clay loams or sandy soils that grow juniper, live oak, mesquite and grasses. Across the county the Cowhouse Mountains run southeast to northwest, elevations range from 1,100 to 1,700 feet, rainfall averages about 27.5 inches a year and the growing season lasts 230 days.

What the plaque says

Site of Chesser Valley Community Near this site is the Chesser Valley, named for early settler John Dan Chesser, whose home became the focal point of a small rural community by the same name. Missouri native John Dan Chesser (1842-1914) moved to Texas with his family in 1854 and married Tennessean Elizabeth Caroline Epley (1842-1924) in 1860. They first lived in Burnet, Texas, but moved to this part of the state after Chesser's service in the Texas State Troops during the Civil War. The Chesser's homesteaded 160 acres of land in the valley in what was then part of Brown County. They expanded their log home as their family grew to number 11 children. It served as a church, hospital and hotel for travelers along the Williams Ranch Road. Chesser Valley was the site of frequent camp meetings. Entire families came from miles away to camp out in a grove of Live Oak trees and attend prayer and preaching services under a tabernacle near the Chesser house. A one-teacher school began in 1868 to serve the children in the area around Chesser Valley. After Mills County was created out of Brown County in 1887, the new county commissioners court recognized the school district and designated it as District No. 8. Those who settled the Chesser Valley community were primarily friends and family of John Dan and Elizabeth Chesser. The Chesser house, which had been the nucleus of the community, burned in 1926, and by the dawn of the 21st century, only one original structure remained from the period of the valley's settlement. (2002)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Lake Brownwood State Park — 29 mi
  A CCC park on a reservoir that filled in a single flood before its dam was done, with stone cabins, a hilltop dance pavilion and a grand staircase climbed by dancers arriving by boat.

More markers nearby

• Jackson Massacre — 2.7 mi
• Mullin United Methodist Church — 3.7 mi
• The Settlement of Williams Ranch — 3.8 mi
• John Williams — 4.2 mi