Anderson Campground
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N D E R S O N C O U N T Y |
Marker No: 8730
Aluminum 27 x 42 Subject Marker
National Register of Historic Places
Geographic: 31.956770,-95.620636
Location: FM 837, just west of FM 315, east of Brushy Creek United Methodist Church
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Marker Text: Located on a spring near Brushy Creek community, this area was first settled in the 1850s. In 1873 it was set aside for use as a religious campground by members of the local Methodist congregation. The land was purchased from E. S. Jamison of Galveston County for sixty dollars in gold. The tabernacle was built the following year of pine beams, sweet gum piers, and wooden pegs.
Religious camp meetings were conducted here each summer. During the week-long services, residents of the surrounding area, representing several faiths, lived in tents on the grounds. The springs provided water for the campers and for baptisms. Although the meetings were primarily times of religious revival, they also allowed distant neighbors a chance to visit and exchange ideas. A sanctuary for the Brushy Creek Methodist Church built here in the 1870s, was replaced by the present building in 1894. A parsonage for use by the circuit preachers burned in 1916. As rural life became more modernized. Camp meetings declined in popularity. The last ones here were held in the 1980s. Still used for religious meetings. Anderson Campground is the site of an annual September homecoming. (1981) |