Location: Mt. Vernon Baptist Church Cemetery (THC) 4.5 miles E of Ratcliff on SH 7(1977) Take Hwy 7 E out of Crockett to Kennard. Take first hard top road out of Kennard, go about 5 miles and at the top of a hill is a church and cemetery on the right(1987) about 5 miles NE of Ratcliff at the Mount Vernon Church.(1998) about 5 mi NE of Ratcliff on CR 1155 at the Mount Vernon Church(USGenWeb) NE of Kennard on Hwy 7. Just past Ratcliff take CR 1155 about 3 mi. Cemetery is on the R. Quite large and active.(cemeteries-of-tx.com) photos.THC marker; A Reference to Texas Cemetery Records, Kim Parsons, 1988; Houston County Cemeteries, Houston county Historical Commission, 1977; Houston County Cemeteries, Third Edition, Houston County Historical Commission, 1987; USGS; Supplement to Houston County Texas Cemeteries Third Edition, 1998; USGenWeb Archives; cemeteries-of-tx.com; topo mapTSHA Handbook of Texas online: MOUNT VERNON, TEXAS (Houston County). Mount Vernon was a farming community four miles east of Ratcliff off State Highway 7 in eastern Houston County. It was first settled in the late 1840s by Thomas Jefferson Payne and his wife Nancy Warren Payne. In the 1870s their son Henry Warren Payne built a school that also served for many years as a church. The building burned around 1883; residents constructed a new building a short time later and named it Mount Vernon. In the mid-1930s the settlement had a church, a cemetery, and a number of houses. After World War IIqv many of its residents moved away, but in the early 1990s the area still had a church, a cemetery, and a few scattered houses. BIBLIOGRAPHY: Houston County Cemeteries (Crockett, Texas: Houston County Historical Commission, 1977; 3d ed. 1987). Houston County Historical Commission, History of Houston County, Texas, 1687-1979 (Tulsa, Oklahoma: Heritage, 1979). Marker Files, Texas Historical Commission, Austin. Eliza H. Bishop THC site visit 11/17/04RAIN, reshoot pics: Ratliff, Tx area. From SH 7 turn N on CR 1160 about 4 miles to intersection with CR 1155, W about 1 mile to church. Church, large fenced site, formal arched entry. About 125 ft. from road. Diversity of formal markers over time. Some curbing, many obelisks, also fieldstones and earlier local castings. Abundant floral grave materials, some decorative materials. Cedar marker trees, also Crape Myrtle, Juniper, topiary evergreens, Irises.. Recent expansion to E. Internal access roads gravel. Approx 3.4 acres. GPS 31.24.29.34981N –95.05.09.63190W. Quad 3195-144Low risk endangerment, fenced, on map, maintained, associated church, on road, sign, associated church.
To address the problem of cemetery destruction and to record as many cemeteries as possible, the
Texas Historical Commission offers the Historic Texas Cemetery designation.
The Historic
Texas Cemetery designation was developed in 1998 to help protect historic cemeteries by
recording cemetery boundaries in county deed records to alert present and future owners of land adjacent
to the cemetery of its existence. Every county in Texas has at least one cemetery designated as a Historic
Texas Cemetery through this program. The HTC designation is the first step toward preservation of a historic cemetery.
A cemetery is eligible for designation if it is at least 50 years old and is deemed worthy of recognition
for its historical associations. The very nature of a cemetery being a landmark of a family’s or community’s
presence is considered to validate the criteria of historical associations. Any individual, organization, or
agency may submit a request for designation.