| Books
featuring Weeping Mary Texas |
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WEEPING MARY,
TEXAS
"An East Texas
Gem"
Cherokee County, East
Texas
County Road 2907
Just off Highway 21
6.5 miles SW of Alto
18 miles S of Rusk
Just behind Caddoan Mounds State Historical Site
Population:
29
Text by Andrew
Wilson
Photos Courtesy Andrew Wilson and Danica Preston
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County
road behind Weeping Mary leading out to Highway 21 |
Weeping
Mary
by
Bob Bowman ("All Things Historical")
Few town names in East Texas
attract as much curiosity as Weeping Mary, a 140-year-old black community
hidden away in the deep woods of western Cherokee County.
Located on County Road 2907, off Texas Highway 21, five miles west
of Alto, Weeping Mary was first settled
after the Civil War by freed slaves from neighboring plantations.....
Weeping Mary is also within walking distance of El Camino Real, also
known as the King’s Highway and the Old Spanish Trail. In East Texas,
the highway (now Texas Highway 21) runs from the Sabine River through
Milam, San
Augustine, Nacogdoches, and
Alto before reaching the Neches
River and continuing westward to Crockett
and, eventually, San Antonio.....
more
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Weeping
Mary sign on Hwy 21 |
Weeping Mary
is a small, nearly all-Black community, just off Highway 21 in Cherokee
County behind the Caddoan Indian Mounds Historic Site. Heading north
on Texas 21 toward Alto, after a few
miles take a left by the junkyard (a good place to browse for offbeat
items and antiques) and the Thomas Chapel Church. The population is
a mere 29 people scattered about four or five county roads off of
CR-2907, aka Weeping Mary Road.
It is said that the community, which was never incorporated, was formed
after the Civil War by freed slaves and named after the weeping of
Mary Magdelene at the tomb of Jesus. However, local lore has it that
it was named after a matriarch who formed a pact with the area's freed
slaves not to sell their lands to white settlers. But when one man
sold his plot of land to whites, the matriarch is said to have spent
her life weeping for the loss of her community. Another legend has
it that gold is buried thoroughout the community, but according to
Weeping Mary resident J.L. Skinner - it is simply that: a legend.
A local school opened in 1896, but closed sometime after WWII.
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The
Weeping Mary Baptist Church (new church being built to the left of
the current church. |
| The church that
was built in Weeping Mary was moved to its current location, which
unfortunately is prone to flooding. Resident J.L. Skinner says that
the congregation sometimes boats to the front entrance of the church
when nearby Bowles Creek floods. The community has many multi-generational
families, including the Skinner, Green, and Peyton families, to name
a few. |
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Rusted
sign above the church door |
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Weeping
Mary Baptist Church schedule sign |
The
town has had its fair share of publicity with Photographer Rufus Lovett's
There's Something About Weeping Mary feature in Texas Monthly
in 1998, a children's murder mystery novel written by Merry Hasell
Frels, entitled Simmering Secrets of Weeping Mary, and my own
play and independant film entitled The Judgment of Weeping Mary
which will be submitted at New York's Tribeca Film Festival
in December 2006.
The community does not have a store, museum, or even its own cemetery.
Weeping Mary's dead are buried in the Thomas Chapel Cemetery off Highway
21 North. The community has a playground with a single swing set (which
was present at the time of my first visit in July 2004 but missing
in October 2005), a single park bench and a trash can. A second church
is under construction right next to the old one. Even with their small
population the community still supports a gospel choir. |
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"The
old dilapidated house is thought to be the old home of community elder
Mrs. Moonie Green or possibly the old abandoned schoolhouse. Mrs.
Green was not available to confirm this on my October 2005 visit." |
© Andrew
Wilson, Director/Writer/Actor, NYC (formerly of San Antonio)
Editor's Note: Former San Antonian Andrew Wilson, who now resides
in New York City has written a play and Independent Film on the "East
Texas Gem" of Weeping Mary, Texas. The film, entitled The Judgment
of Weeping Mary will be entered in the prestigious Tribeca Film Festival
in December of 2006. Mr. Wilson's information on the community appears
here in lieu of our normal History in a Pecan Shell.
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