Old Mt. Pleasant should not be confused with Mt. Pleasant Cemetery near Deport in the southeast quadrant. Old Mt. Pleasant is located in the northeast quadrant of the county in Block 33 of the Lamar County Road Map produced by American Drafting and Services revised December 1993. Information obtained from Kathy Allred and Ann Spencer, PROVIDENCE BAPTIST CHURCH 1868-1983, history, (Wolfe City, 1984). pp. 9-10: "This old cemetery east of Providence Baptist Church is now abandoned. It is about one mile east of the church on a hill. The names have been extracted from the above book which contained no dates. The cemetery has not been officially recorded so some dates are not available at this time. There are more than 19 graves in the cemetery." This cemetery is believed to be the same as the Crane Cemetery.


THE PARIS NEWS, Sunday, Nov. 26, 1944: 'Mount Pleasant-Providence Settlers Formed One of First Temperance Groups in Lamar Co.-- by Joe B. Caldwell (Information given by J.P. Ford, Mrs. J.O. Sisson, Mrs. F.O. Reed and Mrs. Roy F. Thompson gratefully acknowledged) On a cool, windswept hill, about five miles northeast of Paris, stand three stately cedars, lofty sentinels that were planted by loving hands a century ago to mark the burying place of pioneer dead. In early days the hillside was covered with great old oaks but a woodchopper, apparently unmindful of the vigil these sturdy oaks were keeping over that sacred ground, chopped them down, and in the process of falling the trees or from age and erosion many of the tombstones are flattened out. This is the old Crane burying ground, and nearby once stood a church called Mount Pleasant. This first church community was established and the Mount Pleasant Church was built by Matthew Reed- who came to Texas in 1844- John Gaines, Bill Stephens, and Jasper Crane, Elby Crane, who was buried there in 1853 and John Crane Sr. buried there in 1867 at the age of 89, no doubt supervised the building of this pioneer church, as both were becoming aged when the church was built. Others of this early community were the Baileys, Guthries, Garrets, Russells and Wilsons and doubtless a few more early families whose names are lost in the passing of time. Although the early Mount Pleasant Church was a Baptist, many other denominations worshiped there, James 'Daddy' Graham, who established a school in Paris that still bears his name, preached at Old Mount Pleasant, although he was a Methodist. The old church was of logs and like others of its time, could not accommodate the large crowds that attended the services, as here came frontier folk for miles around for spiritual comfort and social contacts denied them except at rare intervals, and a large brush arbor was constructed beside the church from time to time where great revivals were held, revivals that built foundation of Christian fellowship that exists to this day- 100 years later.
New Church Built-- In the early 1870's this first log church was replaced by a new church building constructed about half a mile west of the original site and this second church was renamed Providence. This church founded on the faith of its forefathers, and of such sound material construction, stands today and accommodates many progeny of the original settlers of the community; truly a fitting monument to those old pathfinders. Active in the building of the new church were the Gains, Landers, Givens and Mullins families and the later church was built on land contributed by Uncle Joe Givens as also was the cemetery alongside. Others who settle round about the Providence-Mount Pleasant community as the years went by, but prior to 1900, were the following: Ingram, Meeks, Rhodes, Rose, Coldwell, Barnett, Goode, Bartee, Grubbs, Rosson, Parchman, Whitten, Hoffman, Franklin, Sisson, Taylor, Crane, Pike, Herron, Nowell, Freeman, Upton, Barber, Bullard, Hice, Moore, Madding, Stuart, Nance, Saffold, Francis, Fletcher, Dulaney, Tibbs, Tyler, Morris, Nixon, Coker, Neel, DeWitt, Smith, Hickman, Walton, Saylors, Messenger, Adams, Stone, Goff, Strickland, Burke, Yeats, Holland, Perrin, Bybee, Patterson, Scarborough, Carroll, Baker, Woolsey, Peace, Keith, Long, Casey, Harris, Holmes, Burnett, Luck, Walters, Hightowers, Mathews, Brandon, Jumper, and Morgan. Early pastors were the Reverends John, Jerry and Sam Crane, J.O. Sisson, Harden, Hunter and Buckner. The Reverend Sisson preached for 15 years and during one of his revivals held in a brush arbor alongside the church there were 54 conversions. The Reverend Buckner often walked from Paris out to the church to preach; he later established Buckner's Orphan Home at Dallas, a world famous institution. He is also mentioned in connection with other early churches in Lamar County. There were seven of the Crane boys, son of Jasper Crane, and five of them were preachers. They too preached in many of the other early churches of Lamar County. Here was established in the early days one of the first temperance groups in Lamar county.
The society was called 'Friends of Temperance' and the following charter was granted them under date of Aug. 27, 1872: 'Friends of Temperance, State Council of the State of Texas. Know ye, that the State Council of the Friends of Temperance have granted and do grant unto J. M. Gaines, W. H. Nowell, T. Mullins, J. Schencke, J. Cromwell, Jos. Proctor, Henry Clark, Robert Givens, Frank [Francis O.] Reed, Miles Wilson, W.A. Rice and James Irvin, a charter to Providence Council No. 244, located in the Providence Church.' This charter, a well printed and dignified appearing document, is signed by Wm. Carey Crane, president, and J. E. Porter, secretary.