Select Page
toledo bend express realty
Water level on 03/18 at 10:30 PM CST
169.82 ft 2.18
Water level for the last 30 days

Weather Forecast

TodayMar 19, 2024
49°F
Toledo Bend
Clear conditions throughout the day.

NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC HOMES

  • Sabine County has only one property listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Identification, location and marker inscription of this place are as follows:
  • Name: Gaines-Oliphant House.
    • Location: Seven miles east of Milam on State Highway 21.
    • Marker Inscription:
      A two story dogtrot log structure with porch, clapboard siding, two additions c. 1860, adjacent double pen log barn. Built at Sabine River crossing of the Camino Real (Spanish Royal Highway) by James Taylor Gaines (c. 1776-1856)for his father-in-law, Edmund Norris. Gaines was planter, ferry operator, Sabine District Alcalde c. 1824, signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence, and contributor to Texas Constitution, Republic Senator. House acquired 1843 by Martha Causey Oliphant; bought c. 1910 by Waller family. Administered by the Sons of the Republic of Texas. Included in the National Register in 1977.

RECORDED TEXAS HISTORIC LANDMARKS

  • There are two recorded Texas Historic Landmarks in Sabine County. They are the Old Jail Building and the Sabine County Courthouse in Hemphill. Identification and marker inscriptions follow.
  • Name: Sabine County Jail.
    • Location: Courthouse Square, Hemphill.
    • Marker Inscription:
      Sabine County Commissioners contracted for this two story Victorian jail building in 1903. It was completed the following year during the county judgeship of James T Peace. Bricks for the exterior were supplied from the local kiln of Henry Huffman. The original interior space, which included an area for hanging, was remodeled in 1925 by the Southern Steel Company of San Antonio. W. H. Davidson was county judge at this time. Recorded a Texas Historic Landmark in 1980.
    • Today the old building is under custodianship of the Sabine County Historical Commission.
  • Name: Sabine County Courthouse.
    • Location: Courthouse Square, Hemphill.
    • Marker Inscription:
      An 1858 election called for Sabine County offices to be moved from Milam (7 miles north) to this more central location. The new county seat, Hemphill, was named for former supreme court justice, John Hemphill. The first courthouse on this site burned in 1875 and was replaced by a larger frame structure. The present building was started in 1906 by N. A. Dawson, under the direction of James Barney Lewis. The top floor was removed following a fire in 1909 and remodeling of the structure was completed in 1938 by the Works Progress Administration.

TEXAS HISTORIC MARKERS

  • The names of each Sabine County Historic Marker, together with locations and inscriptions, are shown below.
  • Title: Francis Marcus Weatherred
    • Location: Milam Cemetery, State Highway 87 and State Highway 21.
    • Marker Inscription:
      Francis Marcus Weatherred came to Texas in 1835. Born in Albermarle County, Virginia, July 15, 1781. Soldier in the Creek Indian War and the Texas War for Independence, 1836. Died December 4, 1854. His wife, Nancy Dowell Weatherred, was born in Virginia 1791. Died in Sabine County, Texas, 1864.
  • Title: Milam.
    • Location: Milam, Sabine County, Texas.
    • Marker Inscription:
      Founded in 1828 as Red Mound. Named in 1835 for Benjamin Rush Milam. Seat of Justice of Sabine Municipality, 1835, of Sabine County, 1837-58. Incorporated December 29, 1837. International Revenue Post during the Republic. Headquarters of the Quartermaster’s Department C.S.A., for Sabine County, 1861-65. First home in Texas of John S Roberts, a signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence. Home of John C Hale, martyr of San Jacinto.
  • Title: The Milam Masonic Institute.
    • Location: On State Highway 21, .25 miles east of Milam.
    • Marker Inscription:
      Many pioneers belonged to the Ancient, Free and Accepted Masons, an order active in education. Among Masons settling in this area by 1845 were Republic of Texas leaders William Clark, James Gaines, D.S. Kaufman, Willis H Landrum, and F. M. Weatherred. The Rev. Littleton Fowler (1803-46), a Mason, opened in 1845 in this county, the Midway Institute, which was soon absorbed by Red Mount Seminary. Set to work at Red Mount (Milam), 1847, was Jackson Lodge No. 35 A.F.&A.M, with John Boyd, G. A. Norford, A. D. Oliphint, O. J. Polley, and J. T. Scruggs, as officers. The Lodge soon operated the Milam Masonic institute, successor to the earlier schools. On the charter application (1853), M.M.I. was listed as an already ‘flourishing school.’ Later, Sexton Lodge No. 251, A.F.&A.M., operated M.M.I., a great contributor to East Texas culture until tax-funded education became universal in the 1870s. Among the supporters of M.M.I. were Masons with the family names Anderson, Causey, Davis, Deweese, Dorsey, Elliott, Gellately, Halbert, Harper, Harris, Jacks, Low, McCloskey, McGown, McMahan, Mason, Nethery, Noble, Pratt, Peeves, Penfro, Sanders, Slaughter Smith, Speights, Sweet, Tucker, Vickers, Watson, White, Whittlesey, Williams, and Yeiser.
  • Title: New Hope-Bethel Baptist Church.
    • Location: 4.4 miles north of Milam, 0.3 miles off State Highway 87.
    • Marker Inscription:
      In the early 19th century, Bethel Baptist Mission was established one mile east of this marker on a lane that is now Farm Road 276. About 1818, Elder William Cook (d 1829), having emigrated from North Carolina to Southwestern Louisiana, began preaching both east and west of the Sabine. A log cabin under a Catawba tree on the property of Henry Chambers and his son, Allen, was the site of Bethel Mission services. Elder Cook’s work here and elsewhere is described by heirs of the pioneers and by a 1910 Louisiana history, “Footsteps of the Flock”, by Ivan M. Wise. Bethel Baptist Church was constituted on Feb. 7, 1841, as a congregation of the Pilgrim Church of regular Baptist faith and order. At that time a frame meeting house was built. Bethel broke off its fellowship with the Pilgrim order in 1849, joining the Central Missionary Baptist Association. The name “Bethel” was changed about 1870 to “New Hope”. This church joined the Southern Baptist Convention in 1927. It also belongs to the Sabine Valley Baptist Association. W. T. Love has been pastor since 1937. New Hope Bethel church stands on land which was donated by J. G. Mason. The present brick sanctuary was erected in 1970.
  • Title: Matthew Arnold Parker (May 27, 1801 – March 19, 1862).
    • Location: On State Highway 87 right-of-way, 4.5 miles north of Hemphill.
    • Marker Inscription:
      First chief justice of Sabine County, Republic of Texas. Parker was born in Georgia. He came here from Louisiana in 1822, settling at this site which was on the land later included in his headright grant from the Republic. In 1836 he served in the defensive Sabine Volunteers. President Sam Houston appointed him chief justice (or county judge) in Dec. 1836, and he was on a commission to detect fraudulent land claims in 1840. After his wife, Mary (Isaacs) died(1845) he married Elizabeth Lowe. He was father of 16 children. He died in De Witt County and was buried near Nordheim.
  • Title: Las Borregas Camp Site.
    • Location: State Highway 21 and State Highway 87 intersection, west side of Milam.
    • Marker Inscription:
      Las Borregas Creek formed east line of Spain’s 1794 grant to J. I. Pifermo, first landowner in present Sabine County. Upstream, about 1800 at Jack Cedar Crossing of Crow Ferry Road, Spain had an army Post to protect settlers and travelers. The “Father of Texas”, Stephen F. Austin, spent his first night(July 16, 1821) in Texas on this creek.
  • Title: El Lobanillo.
    • Location: State Highway 21, near post office, Geneva.
    • Marker Inscription:
      Pueblo of Gil Ybarbo (1729-1809), where his ill mother and other refugees remained when Spain evacuated colonists from western Louisiana and East Texas in 1773. Granted to Juan Ignacio Pifermo, and inherited in early 1800s by John Maximillian (1778?-1866), this is now Known as the oldest continuously occupied site in East Texas.
  • Title: Mial Scurlock.
    • Location: Scurlock Cemetery, off Goat Hill Road, via State Highway 21 and Farm Road 1, four miles east of Geneva.
    • Marker Inscription:
      Mial Scurlock (b. 1809) and his brother, William Scurlock (1807-1885), left their Mississippi home in 1834 to settle in Texas, then a part of Mexico. That same year they received a land grant here in the Sabine District and, with their slaves, began farming the site. The following year, when disputes between Texas settlers and Mexico resulted in the Texas Revolution, the Scurlocks joined the Texas Army at San Augustine. Mial participated in the Siege of Bexar and in the battle of The Alamo, where he was Killed on March 6, 1836, in the defense of his adopted land.
  • Title: Sabine County.
    • Location: Hemphill Courthouse grounds.
    • Marker Inscription:
      A borderland between Spain and the United States, 1803-1819. Entry for many Anglo-American colonists and travelers after 1820, first included in the municipality of Nacogdoches; after 1832 in the municipality of San Augustine; on December 15, 1835, it became the municipality of Sabine, borrowing its name from the river which forms its eastern boundary. Became a county in 1836. Organized in 1837. Milam, county seat, 1837-1858, Hemphill, since 1858. In the heart of the pinelands. In memory of Benjamin Holt, Absolom Hier, Jesss Parker, members of the Convention of 1832. William Clark Jr., James Gaines, signers of the Declaration of Independence, 1836. Captain William Scurlock, a participant in the battle of Coleto under Colonel James W. Fannin, Jr. life spared March 27, 1836. Isaac W Burton, Benjamin F. Bryant, John C. Hale, William Pace, Alfred Benton, Dr. Robert K. Goodloe, San Jacinto veterans and other founders and defenders of the Republic of Texas, who lived in this county, before or after the Revolution, Some of the distinguished citizens contributed by Sabine County: David S. Kaufman, first U.S congressman from Texas; Sam D. McMahan, pioneer patriot; Littleton Fowler, early missionary; R. P. Sibley, J. C Caraway, captains in the CSA.
  • Title: Jones-Sweet House.
    • Location: Geneva
    • Marker Inscription:
      Jones-Sweet. C A. Jones (1869-1962) used pine lumber grown on his own land to build the original two-room portion of this house upon his marriage in 1892 to Roxie Horn (1876-1941). Jones, who operated a general store and shingle mill, later enlarged the house, hauling stones to this site by ox cart for the chimney. In 1907 he sold the structure to his father-in-law, W. W. Horn (1841-1926), a prosperous farmer and Confederate veteran, who further enlarged it. Acquired in 1937 by Horn’s granddaughter, Imogene (Mrs. Grover Sweet), the property has been continuously owned by family members.
  • Title: McMahan ‘s Chapel.
    • Location: 5.5 miles west from Geneva on State Highway 21, 2 miles southwest to chapel.
    • Marker Inscription:
      The oldest Methodist church having a continuous existence in Texas. Organized as a “Religious Society”, September, 1833, at the home of Colonel Samuel McMahan by the Rev. James P. Stevenson (1808-1885), as a Methodist church July, 1834, by the Rev. Henry Stephenson. First building was completed in 1839 by the Rev. Littleton Fowler and given the name of McMahan’s Chapel. Displaced by a new building in 1872 and again in 1900.
  • Title: Gaines Memorial Bridge.
    • Location: Seven miles east of Milam on State Highway 21.
    • Marker Inscription:
      Named by the Highway Departments of Louisiana and Texas in honor of two brothers: James Gaines, who owned and operated a ferry here, 1819 to 1844, and was a signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence, and General Pendleton Gaines, an officer of the U.S. Army, prominent in Louisiana history, and who was stationed near here in 1836 to observe the campaign in Texas.
  • Title: Sabinetown.
    • Location: Sabinetown.
    • Marker Inscription:
      Established by Herman Frazier in 1839. Named for the river on which it was located. A port of entry during the period of the Republic. Among its earliest citizens were David S. Kaufman and Augustus Hotchess and Shadrick Morris. Nearby lived Jesse J. Robertson and E. H. Hines. Post office discontinued by 1880.
  • Title: Barney C. Lowe.
    • Location: Lowe Cemetery, two miles east of Brookeland.
    • Marker Inscription:
      Barney C. Lowe, a participant in the capture of San Antonio in 1835. Born in Kentucky, May 16, 1817. Died November 30, 1874. His wife, Philiann Bradshaw Lowe, born November 10, 1823, died November 5, 1865. Erected by the State of Texas – 1936.

OTHER MONUMENTS AND MARKERS

World War I

In 1924 the commissioners court approved the erection of a monument in Hemphill to honor Sabine County men who lost their lives during World War I. This granite monument stands today on the northeast side of the courthouse square and has the following inscription.

Erected to the memory of the Sabine County, Texas, boys who made the supreme sacrifice in the World War, 1914-1918.

  • Mack Isom
  • Leo Vickers
  • Dock Minton
  • Marvin Arnold
  • Nolan McDaniel
  • Elijah Ferguson
  • Marvin Mott
  • Tommie Bell
  • Gram Smith
Other monuments and markers in Sabine County
  • Other monuments and markers in Sabine County are shown below, together with location and marker inscriptions.
  • Title: Pendleton 1607-1701.
    • Location: Seven miles east of Milam on State Highway 21.
    • Marker Inscription:
      Site of crossing on the Sabine River. Used more than 400 years,first by the Indians, later by the Spaniards, French, other Europeans, and more than 50,000 Anglo-Americans who came to settle in Texas prior to statehood. Erected by the Texas Society National Society, Colonial Dames, AD 1969.
  • Title: Pendleton.
    • Location: Seven miles east of Milam on State Highway 21 where it crosses the Sabine River into Louisiana.
    • Marker Inscription:
      Texas-Louisiana Boundary
      Kings Highway
      Camino Real
      Old San Antonio Road
      Marked by the Daughters of the American Revolution and the State of Texas — AD 1918.
  • Title: Pendleton.
    • Location: Seven miles east of Milam on State Highway 21 where it crosses the Sabine River into Louisiana.
    • Marker Inscription:
      1609-1776. Site of the historic crossing on Sabine River. Erected by the Sabine River Chapter, Texas Society of the National Society, Daughters of the American Colonists.

For more Sabine County, Tx. history like this, check Robert Cecil McDaniel’s books!