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Minutes of the McRae church state that "at a place called Union Church, six miles southwest of the town of San Augustine, a number of persons assembled on this, the 15th day of October 1882 . . . The following persons at their own request, were dismissed from the First Presbyterian Church of San Augustine and were organized." The church was first named Wilson Church, after the organizer of the First Presbyterian Church in Texas, Rev. Hugh Wilson. However, the church’s name soon changed to McRae Church, in honor of Rev. D.A. McRae of North Carolina, who helped to organize the congregation and served as the first pastor. Captain T.W. Blount offered land at this site to the congregation for the construction of a church, and a frame structure was completed and dedicated in October of 1884. Captain Blount had signed over the property for the church and cemetery to the church trustees in February of 1884. The cemetery at this site had been in use for several years prior to the organization of the church. The oldest marked burial at the cemetery is that of Willy Myrick, who died in 1866. Willy was the son of John Myrick and Adeline Roundtree; John Myrick was listed in the church minutes as a member in 1883. Ela Jane Pritchett, the two-year-old daughter of founding member J.C. Pritchett, died just seven days after the church’s founding and was buried at the cemetery. On April 5, 1920, after forty years of service, Rev. D.A. McRae was laid to rest in the cemetery that bears his name. Although the church was dissolved by the Brazos Presbytery in 1969, the cemetery continues to be active and is cared for by the McRae Cemetery Association. Historic Texas Cemetery - 2007 |
