Historical Marker
Thornton Church Community
Groveton, Trinity County · Texas
Erected 1988
The Trinity County Historical Commission's survey of Thornton Church Cemetery, made in 2002, says the cemetery books and Trinity County Beginnings give slightly different versions of how the place began. It dates a church here to at least 1872, later used as a school, and records that by 1886 the school was Trinity County Community School Number 6. The structure beside the fenced cemetery was built in 1911, replacing a school and church combination. The survey credits the donated land to Clarky Ann Tullos Thornton, wife of James D. Thornton, where the plaque names him.
What the plaque says
Thornton Church Community James D. Thornton (1807-c.1870s) came to this area with his family in 1858. Traveling in a wagon train with other families from their Mississippi home, the Thorntons joined friends and relatives who had preceded them to Trinity County. A farming community was established, and much of life was centered around the Thornton Church and School, built on land donated by James D. Thornton. Farming continued to be the principal economic base until population began to decline after World War II. Many area pioneers are interred in the Thornton Church Cemetery. (1988)
Where it stands
31.04572, -95.28796 · Directions
Worth the stop nearby
- Ratcliff Lake Recreation Area — 25 miA Davy Crockett National Forest lake of about 45 acres, built by the CCC in 1936 from a sawmill log pond, with a swimming beach, camping and the start of the 20-mile Four-C Trail.
- Texas Prison Museum — 27 miA Huntsville museum on the history of the Texas prison system, where the electric chair Old Sparky, used for 361 executions from 1924 to 1964, is shown beside the rodeo and the escapes.
- Sam Houston Memorial Museum — 28 miA 15-acre Huntsville campus with Sam Houston's Woodland Home and the Steamboat House where he died in 1863, a museum, an education center gallery and free grounds open dawn to dusk.