HIBDON CEMETERY

                    
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HIBDON CEMETERY

 

The Hibdon Cemetery is  located across the Leon River south of the Bulman Cemetery. To get there go north from Hwy 36 at Whiteway on CR 303 into a private ranch.   Hibdon Cemetery is on the south side of the Leon River and is also south of the Bulman Cemetery which is on the north side of the Leon River.

 

"From James A. Wright:


"When I was there about 3 years ago we found a grave marker for Ophelia Jane "Hitt" Hull. (Sister to Austin Marion Hitt) She was buried May 18, 1876.

"I was in high school when my great grandmother Polly [Mary Frances "Polly" (Griffith)(Pruitt) Hitt] died & I helped dig the grave. The only grave digging I ever took part in. My grandfather, Will Frank [William Franklin "Will Frank" White], picked out the spot from instructions by Grandmother Mary.
Grandmother wanted Polly buried by Pruitt but without proper markers we dug the grave in the wrong place and a few weeks later, at grandmother's instances, Polly was moved.
There is no way to determine where any of these people are buried today.

"I am sure some of the Griffith are also buried here but I have no way of
knowing."


Incomplete Listing:

  Corrections and additions are welcome and may be sent to Elreeta Weathers:

 

NAME

BORN

DIED

OTHER

GRIFFITH, JESSE JONES, ELDER . 02/10/1860 *Arrived in 1855 in area which became Hamilton County in 1858

*First treasurer (appointed by Sam Houston, Jan., 1858) of Hamilton County

*August 2, 1858, elected 1st treasurer of Hamilton County

*First Primitive Baptist Preacher in Hamilton County

*Established  in his home the 3rd school of record in Hamilton County

*Killed by Indians

 

 

HITT, AUSTIN MARION . 1916 No Marker
HITT, MARY FRANCES "POLLY" (GRIFFITH) (PRUITT) . 1946 Husband #1:  Thomas S. Pruitt

Husband #2: Austin Marion Hitt

Married: 1883, Hamilton County, TX

Parents:  Jesse  Griffith & Violet Hendrix

HULL, OPHELIA JANE (HITT) . 05/18/1876 Marker

PRUITT, THOMAS S. 

.

1881

Wife:  Mary Frances "Polly" Griffith

No Marker


ELDER JESSE J. GRIFFITH

In 1855, Jesse J. Griffith arrived in the area that would become Hamilton County. When the first Hamilton County officials were elected, on August 2, 1858, the 80 qualified voters in the county chose Griffith to be the first County Treasurer. In 1860, Griffith started a private school, the 3rd school on record in the county, in his home on the banks of the Leon River, east of the town of Hamilton. The school was in existence only a very short time because Elder Griffith was killed not long after he established the facility.

Griffith may have been the first Primitive Baptist preacher in Hamilton County. The book "The History of the Primitive Baptists in Texas, Oklahoma, and Indian Territory", by J. S. Newman, contains the following account of Griffith's death from an Indian attack.

"Elder J.C. White, who was known in his day as Uncle Jackie, left Alabama October 11, 1856, and landed in Coryell County January the second 1860. At this time the county was sparsely settled and of course our people were few and widely scattered. A short while after Elder White settled in Coryell County he heard of an Old Baptist preacher by the name of Griffith that lived over in Hamilton County on the Leon River, so Elder White started to hunt Elder Griffith and as there were Indians in the county at that time. Elder White buckled his six-shooter around him and his gun to the horn of his saddle with his old saddle bags containing a hymn book and Bible, so when Elder White found Elder Griffith he was soon informed that there was a Primitive Baptist Church over in the northeast corner of Coryell County by the name of Rainey's Creek.  Arrangements were soon made and the two Old Baptist preachers were on their way to said church, and near where Turnersville now is, the Indians came upon them wounding both of them, Elder Griffith died nine days after he was wounded. Elder White's wounds were so severe that life was despaired of by his family and his brethren. For seven weeks he was turned on a sheet in his bed. He finally survived, his wounds got well. He died at Lampasas on February 13, 1884. Thus passed away one of the best pioneer preachers of Texas. Peace be to his ashes."

 



 
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People and Places: Gazetteer of Hamilton County, TX
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Copyright © March, 1998
by Elreeta Crain Weathers, B.A., M.Ed.,  
(also Mrs.,  Mom, and Ph. T.)

A Work In Progress