Historic Rock Church, Marvin's Chapel School, and Paluxy Masonic Lodge Number 393 were originally housed in the old two-story structure, constructed from hand-hewn limestone rock from a local quarry and homemade lime mortar.  The community takes its name from this structure.  The cemetery has been in existence since the earliest grave was placed there about 1873 on the five acres of land donated by Jesse CARAWAY for the church and school.

He and Lorenzo Dow WOOD, another early settler in the Paluxy River Valley, both realized the need for a place of worship, schools for their children and grandchildren, a masonic lodge for a strong community, and a building the people could use as defense in the event of Indian raids.  They both contacted neighbors in 1871 to help with the labor and cost of building Rock Church.  The building was complete[d] about 1873 and the first school was held that year, with James T. WILLIAMS as the first teacher.

When William H. CARAWAY passed away in October, 1890, his wife, Kizzie Emma Wood Caraway HENLEY, sold another 5½ acres from Jesse CARAWAY's original tract of land, deeded to her husband by his father when they married, to the local trustees of the Methodist Church for an extension of the cemetery.

The little white chapel was constructed about 1907 and 1908, and was deeded to the Methodist Episcopal Church South.

The famous old swinging bridge at Rock Church, which accommodated wagons and later automobiles, was constructed in the later part of 1916 and early 1917.  Prior to its completion, a swinging footbridge was used to cross the river, and folks approaching opposite the river bluff, would park their wagons or tie their horses under the large shade trees, and cross the river by the footbridge.

Our forefathers suffered many hardships to carve out a community when they first settled the unspoiled wilderness of the Paluxy River Valley as early as 1854.  The early settlers pulled together through out many crises of sickness, plague, the Civil War, Indian raids, trials, and even death.  Many families who settled there after 1868 were fleeing the onerous Reconstruction in the post war southern states.

SOURCE:

Janet L. Saltsgiver, "Rock Church History," Hood County Genealogical Society newsletter, (Granbury, Texas), 13:3 (November 1995), p. 35.




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20 Nov 2004  |  07 Nov 2011