The History of Snow Hill, Texas

(Last update March 13, 2005)
Please scroll down to see pictures of the new fence.

Snow Hill, Texas, as a town no longer exists and absolutely nothing remains of the original town. In the latter half of the 1800's and early part of the 1900's it was a thriving rural community almost on the border of Titus and Morris Counties on State Highway 49. At Snow Hill there was a fork in the road where one road went on to Mt. Pleasant from Daingerfield and another went North to Clarksville. This old road to Clarksville was abandoned many years ago but the original road bed can still be seen on land owned by John Hunt, a great grandson of A. S. Hunt and grandson of Bessie Daily Hunt. Remnants of an old home place were discovered as he cleaned up the place.

It was said that there was a water well in the fork of the road. It was said that the well provided water to the stage coach horses that traveled this road. The remnants of this well can be seen on John Hunt’s land. The stage station provided a change of horses and drivers. It must have been quite a little town with a bakery, various mercantile stores and saloons. The town was located almost on the county line between Titus & Morris Counties. Morris County was carved out of Titus County in later years.

When railroads were being built in East Texas it was assumed that a rail line from Jefferson, TX to Daingerfield, TX would continue on to Mt. Pleasant, TX passing through Snow Hill but that didn't happen. Instead the railroad went west to Pittsburg, TX and a small town named Cason, TX developed just south of Snow Hill.. With the coming of the railroad, Cason prospered as most of the Snow Hill merchants and saloons moved to Cason. Eventually the town Snow Hill faded away into history.

However, the Snow Hill church and cemetery survived and are located just a short distance west of State Highway (SH) 49 just inside Morris County. Opposite an intersection of Farm Road 144 there is a sign pointing to the church which is a few hundred yards up a country road to the west of the highway. The church and cemetery are south of where the town used to be and barely in Morris County.

Photographs follow so you may need to wait for them to load, depending on the speed of your Internet connection.

This is an aerial view of the cemetery looking to the North. West bound traffic can be seen on SH 49 in the upper right corner. The church is almost completely hidden from view to the left of the cemetery in a pine grove. The county road leading to SH 49 is the blacktop at the lower portion of the picture.

In the summer and fall of 2003 most of the pine trees near the entrance to the cemetery (left center of the picture) were removed with all of the healthy oaks remaining. The cemetery boundary is being extended to the west (left) with a new commemorative fence installed. Individual eight foot sections were sold for a donation of $400 and this includes a bronze plaque with wording as desired by the donor. Work was anticipated to be complete by Decoration Day 2004 but was not finally finished until October 2004. Because work is in progress to secure a Historical Medallion for the cemetery, this original entrance arch will remain where it is and the Historical Medallion will be adjacent to it. The new entrance has bricked columns with an arch across the top. The new entrance and gate were donated by George Lunsford, Jr., Mrs. Vernon Hunt and Mrs. Suzy Hunt Davis. Suzy is the daughter of Guy Hunt, a long time trustee of the cemetery perpetual care fund. Vernon and Guy were sons of Grady Hunt and grandsons of A. S. Hunt, both Grady and A. S. are buried here. (Update 3-13-05)

This is the old main entrance gate on the West side of the cemetery toward the church. This attractive entrance was a gift of Evelyn Cason in memory of her husband, A. A. "Jack" Cason, long time residents of the Snow Hill Community. A historical marker for the cemetery is a “works in progress” and when completed the plaque will be mounted near this arch.

Above is the finished new entrance gate with the old arch in the background. An all weather road has been installed from the country road through the new gate, through the old arch and down to the last row of graves along the east fence.

This is the new southwest corner and an example of the fence with the bronze plaques attached. As you can see the size of the cemetery has been enlarged considerably.

This is the west fence showing the five remaining oak trees inside the new cemetery fence.

Above is a view of the road side fence on the south side. At the time this picture was made not all of the plaques had been attached to the fence.

Above are examples of the bronze plaques attached to each fence sections. There are still a few vacant sections for anyone who might wish to add an additional plaque or for someone who failed to be notified of this project earlier. If you are interested, email to randy@presley.com.

This is the present day Snow Hill Baptist Church. Notice that there is a Texas Historical Marker beside the front entrance to the church. This is still a fully functioning church with services each Sunday.

The historical marker above gives a good history of the church.

Above is a simple marker for one of the early settlers, Martha Jane Presley. The original head stone became unreadable with age and this simple marker was installed in later years by her descendants. While she was not the first person buried at Snow Hill, possibly she was the oldest in age.

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The land for the church and cemetery was granted by John W. Cason to the church on June 18, 1870 and recorded on the deed records in the Titus County Court House at Mt. Pleasant, TX and also in the Morris County transcribed records in Volume 7, Page 8. The property is just barely in Morris County.

Traylor Russell, [now deceased] a descendant of both the Russell and Traylor families, was a lawyer in Mt. Pleasant for many years. He authored numerous books on the history of the county and the pioneer people who lived there. The following history of the Snow Hill Church and Cemetery was written by him on January 1, 1979.

Today's traveler on Texas State Highway 49, when he crosses the Titus-Morris County Line, will not realize that he is traveling along the main street of quite a large country village that existed from about 1840 to 1875. This town was known as Snow Hill. It had a post office, drug store, school, church, doctors, lawyers, and merchants; but it had no railroad, the lack of which eventually caused its citizens to remove elsewhere. This road has had various names through the years. It has been known as the Caddo Trace, the Choctaw Trail, the Clarksville Road, and the Jefferson Road.

The exact date of the organization of Snow Hill's first church is not known. Jim Hayes, a pioneer of the community, has said that there was a church at Snow Hill in the early 1850's. There is also some memory of a church located at the Hayes Cemetery as early as 1850, and records do exist to show the organization of a church in the Bethel Community in 1866. The congregation of the Bethel Church later became a part of the church that we know today as the Snow Hill Baptist Church.

J. W. Cason was a merchant at Snow Hill and a large landowner in the area. On June 18, 1870, he and his wife, Thurza, deeded four acres of land to the Snow Hill Baptist Church for church and cemetery purposes. There is some history to the effect that as a result of this deed, the former church building was moved from the town center of Snow Hill to the present location. This old church faced in the opposite direction from the modern building. In 1948 the old building was demolished and the present building constructed.

As far as is known, there are no burials in the adjacent cemetery prior to the deed from J. J. Cason. Earlier burials were at nearby cemeteries: the Hayes Cemetery, about one mile northeast; the Reynolds Cemetery, about three miles east; and the Blevins Cemetery, about three miles south. There were other small family cemeteries at unknown locations.

The Snow Hill Cemetery has always been well cared for and fenced by those whose loved ones are buried there. About 1965 the late Gus Presley started a Perpetual Care Fund. This fund has grown steadily and today (Jan 1, 1979) is approximately $22,500. The proceeds from the sale of this history will go to the Perpetual Care Fund.

Traylor Russell, Mt. Pleasant, Texas
January 1, 1979

[As of 2004 the perpetual care fund has grown steadily. Because of wise and safe investments, the interest earned from this fund has been adequate to provide good care and maintenance. However, this is not to say that there are sufficient funds to make some needed capital improvements and major maintenance such as commercial cleaning of some of the monuments that over the years have broken, weathered to the point that the engraving is hard to read or have been badly discolored from mold, moss or mildew. We encourage all who have relatives buried here to financially support the perpetual care fund so that this cemetery will look as good in the next century as it does today Due to the very low interest rates on CD’s in 2004 the income has decreased considerably so today there is an even greater need for financial gifts to the perpetual care fund..]

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History of the Hayes Cemetery and some of the People who are buried there.

[The reason why I give a history of the Hayes Cemetery is because that cemetery and the Bethel Baptist Church are an integral part of the history of Snow Hill.]

The Hayes Cemetery is located about one mile northeast of the Titus-Morris County Line at the crossing of this line on Texas State Highway 49. It is carved out of lands now (January 1, 1979) owned by Guy Hunt of Dallas, grandson of Anglo Saxon Hunt. [2003 note: Guy is deceased and the land is still owned by his daughter.] The Hayes Cemetery is the oldest cemetery in the Snow Hill area. It is about one mile northeast of the old town site. It was on a road that ran from Snow Hill toward Wheatville and on into Arkansas. This road has long since disappeared; and now the cemetery is isolated from any public road, although there is a passable lane through two gates and over private pasture land leading to the cemetery.

The first monument-recorded burial in the cemetery is that of Clemetine Butler (born December 11, 1858; died March 5, 1859). In addition to the monumented graves, fifty others can be identified from rocks or depressions in the soil. There are probably others that have been completely lost. Near the cemetery there was said to have been a Baptist Church by the name of Bethel, and this later became the Snow Hill Baptist Church. No evidence of the church now exists. John Massey, buried in the cemetery in 1882, was the pastor there when Solomon Hayes Price was converted and entered the ministry. John Massey came to Titus County about 1847. He is listed in the 1850 census of Titus County as being 30 years of age and his wife, Emily, as 28 years of age.

William Hayes came to Titus County about 1846. He purchased the land on which the Hayes Cemetery is located. It is not known whether there had been burials prior to his purchase, but there were burials during his ownership. When the land was sold to A. S. Hunt in 1903, two acres were dedicated for the cemetery. [This is all taken from notes published in 1979 by Traylor Russell.]

2003 comments by Randy Presley are below:

The old road from Snow Hill to Wheatville mentioned above probably closed many years ago and may have been replaced by another road, which is now FM144, that runs from Cason to Omaha, TX. This road bypassed the Hayes Cemetery leaving it in a very isolated location that can now only be reached by driving through gates and pastures to a thick grove of woods. There is a sign on FM144 pointing to the gate leading to the Hayes Cemetery. The cemetery is fenced with a chain link fence and maintained by the same caretaker of the Snow Hill Cemetery. The perpetual care fund of Snow Hill Cemetery also includes a separate fund for care of the Hayes Cemetery, which is administered by the trustees of the Snow Hill perpetual care fund.

Also of interest, there is a Historical Marker on the east side of FM144 just north of the Hayes Cemetery Marker. This marker relates to the history of the Valley View School which stood just East of the marker. There are no remains standing of the old school that was attended by children of the community some of which today are now buried at Snow Hill. Valley View was a one room school house of that era in which several grades were taught together. James Howell, a resident of the area and one who attended Valley View, along with others were responsible for getting this Historical Marker installed.