Stony Point Church and Cemetery

The settlement had a second name. A county-history page says the place formerly called Stony Point took the name Chambliss from Dr. J. J. Chambliss, who practiced there, and lay about five miles northeast of Melissa. A 1930 Arizona obituary reprinted locally says he was born in Georgia, graduated from the Louisville medical college in 1878, practiced more than forty years in several states and died in Phoenix at 76. Joy Gough places Chambliss a little northeast of the church and says the first school was the Johnson School.

What the plaque says

Stony Point Church and Cemetery In the 1870s and 1880s the pioneer settlement of Stony Point was a thriving agricultural community with a cotton gin, general store, gristmill, molasses mill and school. On August 17, 1878, area residents formed the Stony Point Baptist Church. Five years later A.J. Scribner and R.N. Coffey donated land to the church which now comprises part of the burial ground. In 1887 J.C. and Elizabeth Price deeded property for the first sanctuary. Destroyed by lightning in 1926, it was replaced by a smaller structure dedicated in 1938. The earliest grave in the cemetery, that of W.M. Wilson's infant son who died in 1880, predates the church's acquisition of the site. Other graves include those of pioneer settlers and leaders of the church and community. In 1938 control of the burial site was transferred to the Stony Point Cemetery Association. By ordaining early ministers and by helping with the formation of churches in the nearby settlements of Verona, Altoga, Valdasta and White Rock, Stony Point Baptist Church had a dramatic impact on the region. It continued to play a vital role until it closed in the late 1950s as a result of the area's declining population. The sanctuary is still used for funerals and for the annual decoration day services. (1982)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Heard Natural Science Museum & Wildlife Sanctuary — 12 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.
• Sam Rayburn House State Historic Site — 25 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.
• Audie Murphy / American Cotton Museum — 26 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.

More markers nearby

• Altoga Cemetery — 3.2 mi
• First Baptist Church of Melissa — 4.2 mi
• Verona Methodist Church — 4.4 mi
• Melissa School — 4.5 mi