The formation of this fellowship developed from an 1857 meeting in a log schoolhouse (0.5 miles south). Conducted by two missionaries of the Union Baptist Association, David Fisher and B.L. Wright, it showed a need for the establishment of a church in the area. Following a canvas of the surrounding community, the Oak Shade congregation was organized on July 4, 1857. The Rev. Austin Ellis (b.1791), a native of Virginia, served as the first pastor.

Prior to 1860 the church was moved to this site, part of the Daniel Donahoe survey. The membership began to decline in 1870 when the nearby Rural Shade Baptist Church (3 miles south) was started. In 1881 the Oak Shade congregation was reorganized and members built a one-room sanctuary here. A separate building was later constructed on the property to serve as a schoolhouse for the community. Worship services were held here in other structures until 1951 when a brick sanctuary was completed.

Graves in the Oak Shade Cemetery include those of Andrew Jackson Isaacks (1817-1864), a veteran of the Texas Revolution who served as the first postmaster for Tarkington Prairie (5 miles southeast), and several victims of a 1918 influenza epidemic.

Near here at the Old Jonesboro Crossing, Sam Houston, an envoy of President Andrew Jackson first set foot on Texas soil, December 2, 1832.

Born March 2, 1793, in Rockbridge County, Va.; son of Samuel and Elizabeth Houston. Moved to Tennessee in 1807 with widowed mother and her family. In 1813 joined U.S. Army under Gen. Andrew Jackson, with whom he formed lifetime friendship and political ties. In Tennessee, taught school, kept a store, served in U.S. Congress, was state governor. In 1829, after his young bride left him, resigned as governor and went westward. Settling in 1833 in Nacogdoches, became a leader in cause of Texas independence from Mexico. Elected March 4, 1836, to command the Army of the Republic, engineered retrograde movement that led to victory of San Jacinto, which won Texas independence. President of the Republic, 1836-1838 and 1841-1844, he was senator after annexation. In 1859 he was elected governor, and served until secession. In 1861 he declined to take oath of office in Confederacy, retiring instead after a quarter-century of service to his state. However, he did not oppose Confederate army enlistment of his young son, Sam Houston, Jr. While the Civil War continued, he died on July 26, 1863, at his home, "Steamboat House," Huntsville. With him was his family, to hear his last words to his wife: "Texas--, Margaret, Texas--".

Sam Houston (March 2, 1793 - July 26, 1863) left home in 1809 and lived among the Cherokees. After two years he returned to the Anglo world; he opened a school, fought the British under Andrew Jackson, and was governor of Tennessee. After a three-week marriage, Houston left the governorship and returned to the Cherokees; three years later, he came to Texas.

Upon his arrival in San Augustine, Sam Houston opened a legal practice on this site. For the next thirty years he used "The Redlands" as a place of business, residence, or refuge. Houston is said to have recuperated from the Battle of San Jacinto in the home of Colonel Phillip Sublett, issuing his report of the battle from San Augustine.

Following Houston's term as president of the Republic of Texas, the people of San Augustine elected him to serve them in the Texas House of Representatives during the Fourth and Fifth Congresses. Houston's divorce from Eliza Allen took place in San Augustine in 1837. He married Margaret Lea in 1840; though her health would not permit her to live in San Augustine, she made frequent visits.

The early and strong support of the people of "The Redlands" for Sam Houston and Houston's love for them is documented in the history and lore of San Augustine and its people.

Founded in 1830 by John McMullen and James McGloin as the seat of their irish colony under an empressario contract dated August 17, 1828 which was fulfilled by the empresarios 1830-1835. Named in honor of Saint Patrick the Patron Saint of Ireland. As the frontier outpost of Texas when the revolution began San Patricio 1835-1845 suffered all the miseries of that conflict with no compensating returns. At and near San Patricio, on February 27, 1836 general Jose Urrea's division of Santa Anna's Army surprised and overwhelmed Johnson's Texan party of 35 men, 9 or 10 texans were killed, 6 or 7 escaped and 20 were sent to Matamoros as prisoners. After San Jacinto the town was destroyed and its inhabitants driven away. In Memory of Rev. Henry Doyle, Rev. T.J. Molloy, Wm. O'Docharty, Geo. O'Docharty, Walter Henry, Patrick Henry, John Hart, Michael Haley, Mark Killalea, Wm. Hefferman, Oceola Archer, Lewis Ayers, Catherine Hoye, Owen Gaffney, John Ross, Wm. Pugh early settlers of San Patricio. John McMullen delegate to the consultation, 1835. John Turner, John White Bower, signers of the Texas Declaration of Independence. John McGloin, John Fadden, Dennis McGowan, Andrew M. O'Boyle, Geo. Pettuck, Matthew Byrne, Patrick Nevin, Edward Garner, Edward Ryan, Dennis Mahoney, Miles Andross, W.M. Quinn Soldiers in Texas Revolution. San Patricio has contributed the following distinguished citizens. Patrick O'Docharty, Susanna O'Docharty, Thomas O'Callaghan, Patrick McGloin, Chris Sullivan, Rose K. Mahoney, John Ryan, Geo. McCowan, Catherine Ryan, James McKeown, Patrick McMurray, Thomas Magowan, Wm. P. Allen, Mary Ann Collins, Hubert Timon, David Odem, John Timon, Andrew Jackson Brown, John Donahue, Mary E. McCloin, Margaret Hart McFall, Patrick Brennan, Margaret Baldeschwiler, John Corrigan, Margaret Q. James, Andrew Gerhardt, Matthew Kivlin, James Grover, Robert Weir, Eliza A. Sullivan, J. Chrys Dougherty, Steve J. Lewis, Joe E. Sullivan, Hugh Touhy, John Dee.

On this site once stood the first church building erected In Huntsville. In 1849, Cumberland Presbyterian Church trustees A.C. King and T.J. Caldwell purchased this land on behalf of the congregation, and the building was constructed soon thereafter. The sanctuary also served as a house of worship for other denominations in town when it was not in use by the Cumberland Presbyterians. Symbolic of the Cumberland Presbyterian movement in Texas, the Huntsville Church was founded on the pioneering efforts of itinerant preachers in Texas such as Sumner Bacon and Andrew Jackson McGown. McGown published the denomination's newspaper, the Texas Presbyterian, in Huntsville from 1849 until it ceased publication in 1856. Church members first met in homes, in the courthouse or in other public buildings, with the Rev. Weyman Adair and the Rev. Milton Estill providing early leadership to the congregation. The Cumberland Presbyterian Church in Huntsville succumbed to the ravages of the Civil War and the 1867 yellow fever epidemic and eventually disbanded. The First Christian Church acquired the property in 1871 and moved the building across the street about 1901, after which time it fell into disrepair and eventually collapsed. Although no longer extant, the Cumberland Presbyterian Church remains a significant part of the early religious and cultural history of Huntsville.

On April 10, 1893, under the guidance of Francis Marion Otis Fenn, a local lodge was organized in Richmond for the benefit of male descendants of Texas Revolution veterans. The Richmond group traveled to Houston a few days later, and on April 20, 1893, a statewide organization called the Sons of the Republic of Texas was formed with 56 members. W.A. Craddock of Brenham served as first president.

Although various reunions were held over the years, the organization fell inactive by World War I. In 1922, the Sons of the Republic reorganized in Houston and elected Andrew Jackson Houston, son of Gen. Sam Houston, as their president. Twelve of the 35 charter members had belonged to the 1893 organization. Male descendants of persons who had performed either civil or military service for Texas between 1820 and Jan. 1, 1846, were eligible for membership.

Since the 1922 organization, the Sons of the Republic have sought to cultivate state patriotism by encouraging the observance of holidays such as Texas Independence Day (March 2) and San Jacinto Day (April 21), and by preserving historical data associated with the Revolution and Republic. Members have established museums, erected monuments, and encouraged the study of Texas history.

On their way west from Arkansas to California about 1856, the family of Francis Marion Nixon and his wife, Catherine Elliot, was forced to detour south from the North Texas Plains to this area to obtain water and forage for their livestock. After first camping on a hill near the Mason/Gillespie County line, thereafter referred to as Nixon Point, they settled in this section of Gillespie County during the 1860s.

The Nixon's son, Andrew Jackson Nixon, and his wife, Lurana Wooten, built their home in this vicinity and with their fourteen children formed the nucleus of the community of Squaw Creek. Marriages by their descendants added the names Baethge, Ratto, Strackbein, Mund, Faught, and Gibson to the extended Nixon family line.

The Squaw Creek Cemetery grounds were a part of a 110-acre conveyance from A.J. Nixon to his brother-in-law, Henry Strackbeing, in 1872. The first recorded interment is that of Elizabeth Gibson in 1873. The first legal mention of the cemetery occurs in a deed executed by Adolph Strackbein in 1914.

Of the approximately 60 interments here, most are members of the extended Nixon family. The burials include those of American Civil War and World War I veterans.

This congregation was organized in 1870 by ex-slaves Bob Bennett, James Collier, Andrew Jackson, Elijah Lewis, Alfred Williams, Steve Williams, Henry Wilson, and their families. They worshiped first in a residence provided by Alford Williams, then erected a sanctuary in an area known as "The Flat." One prominent early member was Matthew Gaines (1842-1900), a former slave who became a minister, state senator, and spokesman for civil rights. St. Paul Baptist Church moved to its present location in 1911. The congregation supports a variety of community service activities.

Created and organized in 1846. Named for pioneer resident Andrew Jackson Titus (1814-1855), who opened county's first road, to river port in Jefferson. Until after the Civil War, Titus County also included areas of present-day Franklin and Morris counties. Six mail routes going by horseback, had pack mules to follow lead horse. High waters in creeks and Sulphur River often halted travel. Record time to haul cotton to Jefferson was 5 days by ox wagon. In 1860 had 9,648 people. Voted 411 to 275 in favor of secession. Sent 10 military companies to Civil War. While home tables drew heavily on game foods (deer, wild turkeys, pigeons, bear), county furnished Confederate commissary with beef, butter, corn, rice, cotton, oats, sweet potatoes, flour, cornmeal, leather, lumber, pottery, tobacco, whiskey and wool. Wartime manufacturing plants included 9 sawmills, 8 gristmills, tanneries and a steam powered distillery. Mount Pleasant had a Confederate transportation depot employing blacksmiths, carpenters, harness makers, wheelwrights. It procured equipment and horses and mules, and made gear, harness and wagons for the purpose of moving men, army supplies and government owned cotton.