Stranger Community, Cemetery and Churches
Marlin, Falls County, Texas
9.5 miles E on SH 7, 1 miles N on FM 1771
Year Erected: 1980
This community was originally settled as Blue Ridge prior to 1850. Thomas
McKissick Garrett donated land (two miles northeast) for the establishment of a
school, church, and Garrett Cemetery. With the estate settlement following his
death in 1862, the property was removed from public use. This location was
donated by David Barclay and two grandsons of Thomas Garrett, James Franklin
Erskine and Thomas Jasper Erskine. The name Stranger was suggested by a visiting
Frenchman about 1870. Buildings for a Methodist-Presbyterian Union Church and a
Baptist church were conducted in July 1869. The first school classes were
conducted in the new sanctuaries. By 1877 the Union Academy and Union School had
become public free schools. A separate schoolhouse (1/4 mile northeast) was
constructed in 1902. Stranger once had a cotton gin, stock dipping vat, doctors,
general stores, blacksmith shop, stagecoach inn, and mills, but only the
cemetery and church buildings remain. The sanctuaries, where services were
conducted until 1960, are now used for the biannual homecoming activities.