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Settlement in this area began in the 1840s. By 1849 the Red Hill Methodist Church had been established about three miles northwest of here. Sometime prior to 1877 the Red Hill Methodist congregation began to hold camp meetings at this site. In 1877 Smith County resident H. E. Calehan donated more than seven acres here to the Red Hill Methodist Episcopal Church, South. Though a church building was never built at the site, Methodist congregations from the Red Hill and Blackjack communities attended summer revivals here. The religious gatherings, which included brush arbor meetings, became traditional annual events. According to local tradition burials took place here prior to the first recorded interment, that of Joel and Mary Morton's daughter Lucinda in 1877. The site became a community graveyard serving the area's rural community and the towns of Brownsboro, Blackjack, and Murchison. Red Hill Cemetery contains more than 450 marked grave sites. Among the people buried here are many of the pioneer settlers of the area and their descendants and veterans of wars ranging from the Civil War to the Vietnam conflict. The cemetery is maintained by the Red Hill Cemetery Association. Sesquicentennial of Texas Statehood 1845 - 1995 |
