Cherokee County, Hattie Roach

Some excerpts from A History of Cherokee County (Texas) by Hattie Joplin Roach (Dallas, TX: Southwest Press, 1934), related to the Isaac Reed family.

From pages 26-27:

Another prominent colonist of this early period was William Roark. Armed with two letters of recommendation, one from the Tennessee surveyor under whom he had served for seven years, the other signed by his home county sheriff and twenty-eight fellow-citizens, and their church letter, the Roarks started for the province of Texas in the fall of 1834. Settling on the John Durst grant, Roark was soon appointed surveyor for the colonies of David G. Burnet, Lorenzo de Zavala and Joseph Vehlein. After the organization of Nacogdoches County, which first included Cherokee County, he served in various official capacities. For some years he was a partner in the Mt. Sterling firm of Durst, Mitchell & Company. As a member of the commission to locate the county seat, as one of the first county commissioners and as a surveyor he continued to play an important role in Cherokee County affairs until his death in 1862. Margaret Roark, his wife, was the daughter of the famous pioneer Baptist minister, Isaac Reed. Their descendants include the Selmans, Boones, McCuistions and Crosbys.

From pages 45-46:

Churches also antedate the county organization. In 1844 the Mt. Olive Baptist Church was organized.[2] Although its exact location is not known, it was apparently near the old San Antonio road, west of the Angelina River. Probably as early as 1845 and certainly not later than 1847 a group of settlers met at the home of B. F. Selman and organized another church, called Palestine for a Mississippi church to which some of the members had belonged. Disguised by a weatherboard covering, the house still stands almost in front of the Linwood stores on the King’s Highway. The last of its charter members, Mrs. B. F. Selman (nee Elizabeth Roark) died in 1910. Four years after its organization the Palestine church, then having only sixteen members, dissolved and united with the Mt. Olive church. Just when and why the name Palestine was again assumed has not been ascertained. The church still exists, the present building being located on the King’s Highway, four miles east of Alto, but is called Old Palestine to distinguish it from the Anderson county seat.

[2] Minutes Sabine County (sic) Baptist Association, 1846 and 1849. [Note: this footnote indicates that in 1936 Hattie Roach had access to the 1846 minutes of the Sabine Baptist Association. This is interesting because the only repository that has the Sabine Association minutes does not have 1846.]

From pages 59-50:

Concerning the Texas Revolution, a sister of William Roark, a Tennessee emigrant of 1834, wrote as follows:
“I congratulate you and other friends of civil liberty on the result of the late struggle, a result that clearly proves that the transplanting of the descendants of the heroes of ’76 but gives a new spur to their patriotism and when their rights are invaded they can yet do deeds of noble daring unparalleled in the annals of heroism. May the administration of your government be as wise as its establishment has been glorious.”