Forest Hill Plantation

Jun 5

In 1847, Henry and Helena (Dill) Berryman had a log house constructed on a league of land that she received from her mother, a widow of early settler and Nacogdoches alcalde James Dill. The Berryman House, also known as the Forest Hill Plantation House, was at the center of a cotton plantation with eight enslaved laborers who cared for cattle, sheep, and horses, and produced 16 ginned bales of cotton in 1860. Located on its original site, the substantial house is a log dogtrot and built of hand-hewn pine logs stacked and held together by square notches at the corners.

The Berryman family sold the house in the 1960s, and it was frequently open to the public for annual community heritage events. But in recent decades, the house has been unoccupied, and is in need of restoration. As a vital community landmark in rural Cherokee County, the restoration of the Berryman House at Forest Hill would ensure that a rare surviving early log house will remain as evidence of the early craft traditions of northeast Texas. Although most of the land that once belonged to the Berryman family has been sold, the surrounding area still retains its rural character. Additionally, a nearby family cemetery contributes to an important historic cultural landscape.