Historical Marker

Gum Spring Presbyterian Church (New Danville)

Historical marker location:
Kilgore, Texas
( in Danville Cemetery, just off Danville Rd., 4 mi. north of Kilgore)
Marker installed: 1970

Named for nearby spring with gum log curb; organized Oct. 7, 1850, by the Rev. J. M. Becton. The 1850 roll: Mr. and Mrs. Meshack Barber, S. S. Barnett, Mrs. T. C. Barnett, Mr. and Mrs. C. W. Scott, Mr. and Mrs. Allen Sloan, Nancy Sloan, Mr. and Mrs. T. W. Templeton.

Log church of 1849 burned on Dec. 31, 1857; present structure, built in 1858, housed Danville Masonic Lodge No. 101 and (1858-73) Danville Masonic Female Academy, the parent institution of Lon Morris College. Moving in 1874, congregation became the First Presbyterian Church of Kilgore.