Zion Hill Missionary Baptist Church & Cemetery

Zion Hill's first pastor was John Sparkman. An 1891 notice by W. H. H. Hays says he was born in Jasper County, Georgia, in 1831, came to Texas in 1853 and settled in Rusk County. Holly Springs Church licensed him to preach in 1860 and ordained him in 1861. He helped form Zion Hill in 1868 and Smyrna in 1873, and led both as first pastor. He was moderator of the Mt. Zion Association for ten years. He died on October 23, 1882, and was buried at Zion Hill, where he had been a member since its founding.

What the plaque says

Zion Hill Missionary Baptist Church & Cemetery In 1867 Augustus Ferguson deeded 8.5 acres of land for a church and school. This congregation was formed in 1868, with the Rev. John Sparkman (1821-82) as the first Pastor. According to tradition, there were 15 charter members. Services were originally held in a log cabin. A frame church, built in 1880-81, was destroyed by fire in 1943 and replaced by the present structure. Unmarked graves in the nearby cemetery predate the church's founding. Burials there include church members, war veterans, and former slaves. (1978)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• New London Museum and Cenotaph — 20 mi
  A volunteer-run museum beside the pink granite cenotaph for the March 1937 school gas explosion, holding a model of the school, a blackboard from that day and an odorizer device.
• Tex Ritter Museum and Texas Country Music Hall of Fame — 21 mi
  Carthage's country music museum, with Tex Ritter's boots, guitars and saddles in a room styled like a movie theater, and exhibits on other Texas stars, Jim Reeves among them.
• East Texas Oil Museum — 25 mi
  A Kilgore College museum that rebuilds the 1930s oil boom in a full-scale Boomtown with a general store, drugstore and newspaper office, plus dioramas, films and antiques given by East Texans.

More markers nearby

• Brachfield — 2.1 mi
• Patrick Community — 2.9 mi
• Richard Brown — 4.0 mi
• Smyrna Baptist Church — 8.5 mi