Bosque County: Land and People (A History of Bosque County, Texas) Page: 94
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SEARSVILLE COMMUNITY
HISTORY
C50
Searsville Baptist Church, (established in 1862)
photo 1972
Among the American frontiersmen who
ventured into Bosque Territory in the early
1850's were the Mabray and Helton families.
Arriving in 1852-1853, they were among the
first, if not the first, to settle in the region
west of present day Valley Mills which was
to be known later as Searsville. In this same
time period pioneer families were settling to
the northwest on Hog Creek and to the east
along the Bosque River. In 1856, two years
after the organization of Bosque County,
Searsville and the community on Hog Creek,
which later centered around the Old Rock
Church and School, were listed as centers of
population in the county.
One of the earliest schools in Bosque
County was established in the Searsville
community in 1856 by John Clark, a Presby-
terian minister. Margaret Melvina Cutbirth
and her brothers who lived on Hog Creek
attended this school. A Mr. Claybrook also
taught in this early school.
On January 9, 1858, a post office was
established in this community. It was first
known as the Neill's Creek Post Office, and
James H. Mabray served as the first post-
master. The name of the post office was
changed to Searsville in 1859.
Searsville takes its name from Josiah
LeGrand Sears, a native of Virginia. Sears
had come to Texas in 1850, living first in
Brazoria County and later in Waco. In 1857,
J.L. Sears purchased 640 acres of land located
on Hog Creek in Bosque County. On this land
he built a rock building for a store and a rock
house for his family. Sears, his wife, and
children were settled in their Bosque County
home in 1859-1860. Josiah's brother, Albert
Sears, became a partner in the Sears store.
Record books show that they purchased
$2,614.18 in goods from New York firms
Burtis & Green, McGrath, Tweed Company,
Reed and Gracy, Lane Royce and Company,
Sackett Belcher Company, Emerson Brews-
ter and Company, and Durgee Jacques and
Company.
The post office, renamed Searsville, was
operated in the store. Mail was brought from
Waco by Mr. Joseph McMurry whose home-
stead joined the Sears place.
With the outbreak of the Civil War, Albert
Sears decided to enlist. In March, 1862, the
store partnership was dissolved by mutual
consent, and the notes and accounts equally
divided with the exception of one account,
one house and lot, and twenty-two bales of
94Picnic near Spring House on the Lowry Scrutchfield place in the Searsville Community, 1903. Back row,
left of Spring House, left to right: George Scrutchfield, Sit Simmons, Charlie Simmons. Far right: Rebecca
Lewis, Texanna Scrutchfield Lewis, Mellie Pool, Tom M. Pool. Second row, left to right: Tom Lewis,
Lucretial Scrutchfield Shaw, Tessie Pool, Juno Scrutchfield McNemar, Will McNemar, Addie A. McNemar,
? McFadden, Mrs. Joe Harris, Joe Harris. 1st Row, left to right: Sammy Lewis, Nannie McNemar, (?), (?),
Mayde Pool, (?), Lota Lewis, Iva Pool, (?), (?), Sam Lewis holding Jack and George Lewis.cotton. J.L. Sears continued to operate the
store; however, the war brought to a standstill
the development of Searsville, and Josiah's
dreams of it becoming a growing community
center gradually faded away.
Families of Searsville and neighboring
communities were able to keep up with the
news of the war from papers brought by mail
to the Sears store-the Galveston News,
Houston Telegraph, and the Shreveport
News Gazette. Subscribers listed in the Sears
ledger included the names of Adams, Bar-
nett, Bloodworth, Everett, Claybough, Cut-
birth, Simpson, Odle, Joe Patton, P. Caroline
and Nancy Goodall, Hickerson, Gouldy,
Smith, Morris, Fitzhugh, Pettigrew, Sadler,
Helton, Preston, Scrutchfield, Reeder and
Poston.
A family history, "Josiah LeGrand Sears",
by Mrs. S.M. Ringness, granddaughter of J.L.
Sears, which was published in the Valley
Mills Tribune October 25, 1974, has been
used as the source of information for the
foregoing story on the development of early
Searsville and the organization of the Sear-
sville church which follows.
In 1862, a church was organized in the J.L.
Sears home by calling a presbytery consisting
of Elder R.B. Burleson, A.D. Maroney, L.D.
Stringer, and N.W. Crain of the Baptist faith.
Josiah L. Sears was elected clerk of the new
church and it was named the Searsville
Church in his honor. Charter members of this
church were F.F. Bloodworth, S. Preston, J.L.
Sears, Eliza Preston, Martha Hill, Francis J.
Sears, Mary and A.W. Sears, Sarah Mabray,
Emily Bloodworth, and two other members,
J.L. Preston and James H. Mabray, both
away at war, were added on the Sunday of the
organization.
The following speech was given by J.L.
Sears on this eventful day: "As we trust we
have by the divine grace of God been brought
to embrace the Lord Jesus Christ and by theinfluence of His Spirit to join ourselves to
him; so do we now convenant to him together.
To work together in brotherly love; that we
will exercise a Christian care and watchful-
ness over each other and faithfully warn,
rebuke and admonish our brethren as the
case may require; that we will not forsake
assembling ourselves together nor omit the
great duty of prayer both in ourselves and
others. That we will participate in each
other's joys and endeavor with tenderness
and sympathy to bear each other's burdens
and sorrows. That we will seek divine aid to
enable us to walk circumspectly to the world
or denying ungodliness and worldly lust; that
we will strive for the support of a faithful and
evangelized ministry among us and the
spread of the Gospel abroad. That we will
through life amidst evil, as well as good,
report, seek to live to the Glory of Him who
both called us out of darkness into his
marvelous light."
Thus began the second oldest active church
in Bosque County, one year younger than the
First Presbyterian Church in Clifton, accord-
ing to Mrs. Ringness. The church services
were held in a log cabin belonging to Sears.
School was also taught in this cabin.
In December, 1865, the R.G. Gaines family
moved from the Hog Creek area in McLen-
nan County to Searsville. Mr. Gaines, just
home from the Civil War, told his family that
he had found a fine home for them. It was
built of pine lumber with floors in every room,
a ten-foot hall through the center, and three
glass windows in each room. His son, Redmon
G. Gaines, who was seven years old at the
time of the move, wrote an account of his
early years in Searsville, Hog Creek, and
Valley Mills communities, "Looking Back-
ward at the Course of Human Events," in
later years. This history, which was first
published in the Dallas Morning News in
1920, has been used as a source of informationA e
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Bosque County History Book Committee. Bosque County: Land and People (A History of Bosque County, Texas), book, 1985; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth91038/m1/110/: accessed July 15, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Denton Public Library.