Vineyard Grove Baptist Church

Vineyard Grove has a second building inside its story. Allens Chapel Methodist Church disbanded in 1916, and in 1926 its remaining authorities gave the chapel and its fixtures to the Baptists of Vineyard Grove to use in raising their new church. A history submitted to the Texas Historical Commission says that gift showed the chapel ministering to others regardless of affiliation. The Handbook of Texas lists Vineyard Grove, founded in 1847, among Fannin County's early churches. In 1962 the two congregations' cemeteries came under one association.

What the plaque says

Vineyard Grove Baptist Church Instituted under direction of Elder Willie Pickett, missionary of Southern Baptist Convention, on Nov. 9, 1847. Charter members: Betsy Parrish Gilmer; Margaret Hart; John W. Jones, Tamazine D. Jones, Tamazine F. Jones; Benjamin B. Parrish, Theresa C. Parrish; Sinclair Stapp, Sallie Parrish Stapp. Elder Pickett was chosen pastor; John W. Jones, deacon; and Sinclair Stapp, clerk. On June 16, 1849, Jones, David Pevler, and Adam Yoakum were asked to superintend building of a meetinghouse. This was completed in 1853. The church still serves this community. (1971)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Sam Rayburn House State Historic Site — 16 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.
• Sam Bell Maxey House State Historic Site — 23 mi
  The Italian-villa-style house in Paris, finished in 1868 with a lawyer's fees, where a Confederate major general turned U.S. senator and two later generations of his family lived.
• Evergreen Cemetery — 24 mi
  Paris's town cemetery since 1866, with a carved-stone gallery that includes the Babcock monument in cowboy boots, and the grave of the three-year-old whose death led to the 1893 lynching of Henry Smith.
• Eiffel Tower — 25 mi
  A 65-foot Eiffel Tower with a red cowboy hat, built by the local welders' union in 1993 beside Paris's Love Civic Center.

More markers nearby

• Allen's Chapel Methodist Church and Cemetery — 0.9 mi
• Erwin Evans Smith — 4.7 mi
• Oakwood Cemetery — 4.8 mi
• Samuel Augustus Erwin — 4.9 mi