The Rev. Henry Hurley

The plaque leaves out how Henry Hurley died. According to the Handbook of Texas, on September 14, 1869 he rode from his home on Duffau Creek to baptize James McCarty, Jr., at the young man's request. That night McCarty, in what the Handbook calls a fit of insanity, shot and killed Hurley and his own father, and killed his child with a rock. Hurley was seventy-two. He had reached Texas by oxcart in 1844, organized churches in Hunt, Fannin and Collin counties, and in Erath County carried arms to services for fear of raids.

What the plaque says

The Rev. Henry Hurley (Dec. 24, 1796 - Sept. 14, 1869) A minister in the Primitive Baptist Church, the Rev. Henry Hurley came to Texas in 1844. His years in the state were spent organizing frontier churches and helping pioneers settle in new communities. He established churches in Hunt, Fannin, and Collin counties before moving to Erath County about 1859. In that year Hurley organized the Bosque Church of the Primitive Baptists and served as its pastor until his death. Recorded - 1983

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Dinosaur Valley State Park — 17 mi
  Theropod and sauropod trackways of about 113 million years ago in the bed of the Paluxy River, a National Natural Landmark where R. T. Bird found the first distinct sauropod tracks in 1937.
• Dublin Bottling Works — 20 mi
  The Erath County plant that bottled Dr Pepper with cane sugar from 1891 until a 2012 settlement ended its Dr Pepper license, and that still makes its own sodas the same way.
• Meridian State Park — 22 mi
  A 505-acre park in Bosque County where World War I veterans of a Civilian Conservation Corps company dammed Bee Creek in 1933-34 for a 72-acre lake and cut stone buildings around it.
• Hamilton County Courthouse — 26 mi
  A limestone courthouse of 1886-87 on the Hamilton square, built after the county's 1878 courthouse burned, enlarged in the early 1930s and rededicated in 2012 after restoration.

More markers nearby

• Duffau Cemetery — steps away
• Duffau Baptist Church — 1.5 mi
• Old Hico — 7.9 mi
• Clairette Cemetery — 7.9 mi