History of
Brazos Bottom Baptist Church
(Old Tunis Cemetery)
1848 - 1939
Brazos Bottom Baptist Church
1867 - 1883
Tunis Community
Burleson County, Texas
Prepared by
Joyce Hitchcock and Eve Pearson
2002
Submitted by: Eve Pearson
Nestled among oak trees, Brazos Bottom Baptist Church Cemetery (known as Old Tunis Cemetery and White Cemetery) is situated in the Tunis Community (1) off of County Road No. 254, near the intersection of Texas Farm to Market Road No. 2039 and Farm Road 166, behind the unmarked Old Bethlehem Church, thirteen miles east of Caldwell, Burleson County, Texas.
Tunis is on the west bank of the Brazos River, four miles northwest of Snook in eastern Burleson Count. Anglo-American settlement in this area south of Reeds Creek began in the early 1820's. The town was founded in the mid-1800's amid several large antebellum Texas (qv) plantations, for which it became the trading center. A post office operated there from 1878 to 1910. The community was also referred to as Dogtown because of the dog races held every Sunday at a local racetrack.....
("TUNIS, TX" The Handbook of Texas Online.
http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/view/TT/hlt35.html
[Accessed Sun Jun 2
13:00:02 US/Central 2002])
Carrington Creek rises five miles miles ease of Caldwell in central Burleson County (at 30degrees 31' N, 96 degrees 36' W) and runs east for ten miles through mostly open country to its mouth on the Old River, two miles northwest of Snook in eastern Burleson County (at 30 degrees 31' N, 96 degrees 29' W). The stream traverses gently sloping to nearly level terrain surfaced with loamy to clayey soils. Post oak, blackjack oak, elm, hackberry, water oak, and pecan woods border the creek along much of its length. Settlement in the vicinity began in the early 1830s. The Providence Baptist Church, for many years one of the Texas frontier's largest Baptist churches, was established near the headwaters of the creek in 1841. In 1866 the Old Bethlehem Missionary Baptist church was founded on the north bank of the lower creek. In the 1890s, with an influx of immigrants from Sicily into eastern Burleson County, the community of Tunis was founded on the north bank of the lower creek as a trade center for Italians (qv) laboring on plantations in the Brazos bottomlands. ...
("CARRINGTON CREEK." The Handbook of Texas Online.
http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/view/CC/rbcra.html
[Accessed Sun Jun 2 13:00:02 US/Central 2002])
Southern Cotton planters created the cemetery during their expansion westward into the fertile Brazos River "bottom" lands. (2) The oldest marked grave is Judge John Gregg (1798-1848) (3). Texas first large-scale sustained cotton-plantation owners and their slaves founded a place of worship, Brazos Bottom Baptist Church, on the site of the present day cemetery.
John Echols and wife, Sarah, deeded the Church and its Trustees, John Goodwin, W. A. Jenkins and Thos., T. Goodwin, 3-1/16 acres of land on January 16, 1867.(4) This land was given to promote the cause of Christianity and more especially to advance the prosperity of the Baptist Church in the Tunis community.
One great
change in postwar Texas was the emergence of the churches. All historians
seem to agree that they were the single most important cultural and social force
behind the Texas frontier. The more institutionalized churches,
Presbyterian, Episcopalian, Lutheran, and Roman Catholic, were among the first
to build edifices, but these were mostly confined to the towns.
...Methodists and Baptists carried over the old Anglo-Celtic puritan ethic
almost intact. Baptists recognized only the authority of the local
congregation in matters of religion; they supported no other; and they could
organize a church without authority or ordination. ...
Church meetings were as much social as ideological. They were held in open groves or brush arbors. Here families came from miles around, dressed in Sunday best. They included suppers, bazaars, and basket parties; they lasted all day, with religious services in the morning and at night. There were two-hour sermons, delivered by circuit riders or local laymen; men and women listened from separate benches. Here women and girls, starved for companionship of their own kind, could grasp at news and gossip, and men discussed crops, common problems, and politics. This meeting was the only place large numbers of people ever assembled regularly on the harsh frontier. The enormous, socializing, tribal thundered from the crude pulpits, set the moral standards and much of the thinking of farming Texans across the whole frontier.
(Fehrenback 2000, pages 599 - 600)
The church was disbanded in 1883.
Caldwell Nov 25 1883
Bro W. H. Jenkins and Sister Jenkins
presented themselves for membership formally they were members of the Baptist
church at Tunis. But said church being disbanded. They were not able
to obtain letters. But were received by statement in full fellowship with
us. ...
(Wings of the Dove 1993, page 98)
The presence of the marked grave of Judge John Gregg (1798 - 1848) suggests the burial ground was used earlier. John Gregg served as the third Chief Justice of the Milam County Court, State of Texas (1843 - 1846).(9)
The families (Batts, Cooper, Davis, Easley, Echols, Estes, Ewing, Goodwin, Gregg, Hunter, Jarratt, jenkins, Kovar, Law, Lipscomb, Morris, Orsag, Parker, Prihoda, Ragsdale, Scarmardo, Sims, Simpson, Sontag, Taylor, Wilkinson) (10) and others lived in The Tunis area the rest of their lives, helping to establish Burleson County.
John and Sarah Echols, came from Madison County, Alabama and arrived in Texas in 1835 (5), Echols fought in the Texas War for Independence in 1836. His reward for serving in the War was an Unconditional Certificate from Washington County, (6) Texas and a bounty land grant. (7)
John Echols established a general store, traded horses and farmed in the rich Brazos Bottom lands, Legend has it that one day Echols was sitting on the porch of his store when a stranger rode up on his horse and asked the name of the place. Echols sat up and answered "The name of this place is "Dogtown". And I am the big dog here." To this day, Tunis is still referred to by area residents as "Dogtown". John Echols and wife Sarah died within a few years of each other (1874-1877) and are believed to be buried in the Brazos Bottom Baptist church Cemetery; however, the exact location of their graves is uncertain. (11)
John Gregg became the third clerk of the court of Lawrence County, Alabama in 1826. He served one term and in 1830 he became the Sheriff and undertook the maintenance of law and order in Lawrence County among the many ruffians and drunken brawlers of that pioneer day. John Gregg was handsome and powerful man but had a quiet and modest demeanor. His brother, Ellis Gregg, served as his deputy. In 1835 Sheriff John Gregg left for Texas in the company of W.D. Thomason, John Wren, James Ellis, James McDaniel, Humphrey Montgomery and Farney Smith to volunteer their services to help Texas fight for its independence. They all entered the same company except James Ellis, who hearing of the arrival of the "Red Rovers" from Courtland, Alabama, joined them and was among those murdered at Goliad. (12)
When the independence of Texas had been won, John Gregg decided to buy land in Texas and settle in the new Republic. He went back to Alabama for supplies and help. In the fall of 1839 John Gregg returned from Alabama accompanied by his son, thaddeus Gregg, and settled on the land northeast of Caldwell in what was then Milam county, but later became Burleson County in 1845. He was also accompanied by a young man by the name of Claiborne Fitch and some Negroes to help prepare a home for his family and to begin to improve the land. After he had given directions to the new place he and Thaddeus Gregg left Texas and journeyed back to Alabama for the rest of the Gregg family, leaving Claiborne Fitch in charge of the Negroes.
In October of 1840 he left his old home place in Lawrence County, Alabama, accompanied by his wife, Sarah Bingham Gregg, and all of their children. They were also bringing 20 Negroes with them. Their transportation consisted of one six horse wagon driven by Sterling Fitch, a brother of Claiborne Fitch. Another wagon was driven by Thaddeus Gregg, the eldest son of John Gregg. Sarah Bingham Gregg was riding in the wagon driven by Thaddeus Gregg. This wagon was in the lead. Ellis Gregg and the youngest child, Henry Gregg, were also riding in the wagon driven by Thaddeus Gregg. On the evening of January 7, 1841, the Greggs had crossed the Trinity River in East Texas and they had reached a locality along the old Nacogdoches Road about fifty miles northeast of the Brazos River crossing. John Gregg had ridden head on horseback to locate a place to camp that night.
On that day, January 7, 1841, a party of Indians (Keechyes or Caddoes) had been following two wagons moving northeast loaded with corn. When the Indians attacked these wagons, the white wagoneer and a Negro helper fled and escaped. As the wagoneer, whose name was Jones, reached the top of a hill, he saw the Gregg wagons approaching from the opposite direction. H immediately shouted to the Gregg party to get out their guns as Indians were at hand. A Negro in one of the Gregg wagons shouted back that the Greggs were unarmed. The Indians had already stopped, thinking the number too great for them to attack, but they understood enough English to know the helplessness of the party, and they charged and surrounded the front wagon driven by Thaddeus Gregg.
After stampeding all the stock, the Indians killed and scalped Sarah Bigham Gregg and Thaddeus Gregg. Ellis Gregg was wounded by an arrow and left for dead. Henry Gregg, who was 4 years old, was torn from the arms of his dying mother and thrown on a horse behind one of the savages and was carried off a prisoner. The wagon being driven by Sterling Fitch was quite a distance back from the lead wagon. When he saw what was happening to the lead wagon, he hastily cut the harness off the wheel-horse in his team of six horses and lifted Mary C. Gregg off the wagon and ran behind the back of the wagon where Lucinda Gregg, Martha Ann Gregg, John Gregg, Jr. and several of the Negroes were walking. They all sought refuge in the woods.
Judge John Gregg waited for some time for the wagons to come. Growing impatient, he went back to find the cause of the delay. To his horror he found his dead wife and his dead son, Thaddeus who had been murdered and scalped, and his second son, Ellis, in a dying condition. He realized his youngest son, Henry, had been taken by the Indians. His wagons had been pillaged and what could not be carried off by the Indians had been piled in a heap and burned. He supposed at first that they had carried off all the other members of his family. In his distressed condition, he screamed at the top of his voice "God have mercy on me!"
The Negroes hiding in the woods, heard his voice and came to him as he stood by the burned pile. It was near dark at this time. They were in a strange land and in a desperate condition. He laid the bodies of his wife and son on a blanket, which he had tied behind his saddle and placed his wounded son, Ellis, on his overcoat and covered him with shawls worn by the girls. There they spent the night. None of them had a change of clothes or any food to eat. The next day, Mr. Fitch went out and found a man and his wife who came to their rescue with food. These people also got together with some of their neighbors and they improvised rude coffins for the dead. Sarah Bigham Gregg and Thaddeus Gregg were buried close by where they had been murdered.
the next day, John Gregg bought a yoke of oxen and a cart. He placed his wounded son in this cart. The had two horses and the cart drawn by two oxen as their means of travel. Ellis Gregg was so weak that their progress was slow. They averaged about ten miles a day. When they reached their new home, friends quickly responded to help John Gregg and his family. The family lived with Judge Rufus Y. King and his family until Judge Gregg had completed building a comfortable home on his own land for them. (13)
Josiah Gregg (no relation to John Gregg), an explorer and writer of several books who lived during this period stopped to visit with john Gregg the later part of 1841. In one of his books he described the Brazos Bottoms as being beautiful an fertile and thought this area could truly be the most delightful part of Texas. He also referred to the tragic death of Sarah Bigham Gregg and Thaddeus Gregg. (14)
In the early spring of 1842, John Gregg had received information that his youngest son, Henry, was still alive and was at a trading post on the Upper Red River and that it would take $500.00 to ransom him. He only had $150.00 in cash, so he borrowed the rest of the ransom from Judge Rufus Y. King and Captain Gabriel Jackson. John Gregg was accompanied by John e. King, Claiborne fitch, and Sterling Fitch on the long trip. The four men started with a packhorse to carry the provisions and for Henry Gregg to ride back on. It was a lonely and dangerous trip. They were gone nearly a month and brought Henry back with them. Henry Gregg had been cruelly treated by the Indians.
William Henry Gregg
John Gregg was elected Chief Justice on October 22, 1843 of Milam County. (15) Burleson County was still part of Milam County in 1843. This is when he acquired the title of Judge John Gregg. He lived on his plantation near Cooks Point on a part of the William Raleigh League. He also owned land in other counties. In the recently published book by the Historical Society of Burleson County it describes how John Gregg was part of establishing the site of the present day Caldwell.(16) In 1840, when the Congress of the Republic of Texas annexed to Milam County all that part of Washington County north of Yequa Creek and west of the Brazos River, Caldwell was designated as the (new) county seat of a new county to be formed. A Commission was appointed by the Congress (Republic of Texas) to select a site. They selected a site lying south of the Old San Antonio Road and west of Davidson Creek, but they were unable to obtain title to it. They were unable to obtain title to a second site, either. Congress promptly passed an act giving Milam County authority to condemn 320 acres of land in the northwest corner of the Francis Smith League, the same on which the town of Caldwell is situated in the County of Milam.
Also in the book published by the Burleson County Historical Society (17), it tells of a S. Bigham, who is living in Burleson County. I assume his full name was Samuel Bigham, Jr. and he was married to Lydia Gregg, sister of (Judge) John Gregg. This was in 1838, so it would seem that the brother of Sarah Bigham had also migrated to the Republic of Texas. Samuel Bigham, Jr. was killed in an Indian fight around 1843 at Battleground Prairie. Battleground Prairie is located about twelve miles from Caldwell, just over the Milam County Line. He was brought back to the settlement for burial, but the place of it is unknown.
Judge John Gregg married 2/Lucretia__________. Lucretia Gregg's maiden name is unknown, and I have been unable to find a record of their marriage but it is assumed that they married between 1843 and 1845. The courthouse in Milam County burned down around 1870, so all records were destroyed. There is no record of their marriage in Burleson County or Washington County. I have not searched the records in Brazos County. This is only a theory, but I think there is a good possibility that Lucretia Gregg's maiden name could have been Oldham, and that she was the sister of William Oldham. She named her only child William O. Gregg. I believe the "O" in his name stands for Oldham. Because William Oldham took a black slave for his common-law wife and had several children by her, this could have been the reason that William O. Gregg sold his land and moved from Burleson County to East Texas. This could also be the reason that so little is known about Lucretia Gregg. Henry Gregg probably did not want it to be known even though Lucretia Gregg was only a step-mother and William Oldham was a step-uncle.
GREGG Family 1890 Left to right-Annie (M. A.), Lucy, Rowena Ruth, Frances
Julia, William Henry Jr., Bessie (Mary Elizabeth Tyler)
While William Henry Gregg was still a child and after the death of his father, Judge John Gregg, William Oldham was appointed to be his guardian in the courts. William Oldham was a hero and patriot in Texas History. He is buried in the Texas State Cemetery in Austin and there is quite a lot of information concerning him in the Burleson County Historical Society book. Again, let me repeat, this is only a theory at this time.
(Martha L. Persons, GREGG family history)