LAST Charter Member of the Pilot Point First Baptist Church - Pilot Point, TX
N 33° 23.242 W 096° 56.935
14S E 690778 N 3696110
A 1998 Texas Historical Marker at Skinner Cemetery, Pilot Point, TX, indicates that, upon her passing in 1890, Lucinda Skinner was the last charter member of the Pilot Point First Baptist Church.
Waymark Code: WM15Q8E
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 02/08/2022
Views: 5
Mrs. Skinner is buried with her husband, Richard, and while her headstone had previously been broken, it has been repaired and is in very good condition. Below a set of clasped hands is:
In Loving Remembrance of
Our Mother
Lucinda Skinner
Born
Jan. 29, 1805
Died
June 28, 1890
Age 85 Yrs. 5, Mos.
--*--
A precious one from us is gone,
A voice we loved is stilled,
A place is vacant in our home
Which never can be filled.
God in his wisdom has recalled
The boon His love had given
And though the body moulders here
The soul is safe in Heaven.
-----
The historical marker provides some history of this cemetery which was begun on her family's property:
In the early days of Pilot Point, Lucinda (Glasscock) and Richard Skinner set aside a 2.44-acre piece of land to be used as a cemetery. The first recorded burial was that of 5-year-old Josiah Taylor in March of 1858; his father, Josiah Sr., died the following July.
Predominantly of Anglo-Saxon Protestant descent, most of those buried here came from Kentucky, Virginia, Missouri, Arkansas, and Tennessee. Many were farmers or ranchers. Significant graves include that of J.D. Merchant, Sr., a local businessman who built the first brick building in the area. Also here are several victims of yellow fever, including Prissie and Sarah Wilson, sisters who died within 2 months of one another during the epidemic of 1872 and 1873. Two people named James Graham, born on the same date two years apart, died on the same September day in 1867.
Lucinda Skinner, the last charter member of the Pilot Point First Baptist Church, died in 1890. By 1900, there were probably 200 graves in the cemetery. The land was sold by John Skinner to the Skinner Cemetery Association in 1905; the last recorded burial was that of Joe Mylo Phipps, an infant who died in 1928. The Skinner Cemetery remains a vital link to the early settlers of the Pilot Point community.
"Bethel Baptist Church" was established in 1856 as "The Pilot Point Baptist Church", at some point changing its name to "The First Baptist Church" and then later to the name by which it's known today. The 1879 sanctuary, where Mrs. Skinner worshiped, is still with us. Her Findagrave page (see below) has a photo of her in old age.