Hiner

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and this one's worth slowing down for. Out in Parker County, there's a community called Hiner, and the marker says it came together mainly through the efforts of one man: James J. Barnett, who settled into Parker County back in 1857.

Now, the marker doesn't give you a ledger of everything Barnett did; it gives you something better. It gives you the legend. Area family stories, passed down through the generations, are full of accounts of Barnett helpin' newcomers with transportation and temporary housing.

A stranger rolls into Parker County not knowing a soul, not knowing where to sleep or how to get around, and somewhere in those stories, Barnett shows up. That's the kind of reputation that outlasts a man. Around 1870, a church went up on land donated by a woman named Mary W.

Wade, right there adjacent to the Hiner Cemetery. They called it Wade Chapel Methodist Church. And the first minister to stand at that pulpit was the Reverend James Hiner.

The building didn't just serve as a house of worship, either; it pulled double duty as a school and a community center. Out on the Texas frontier, you used what you had, and what they had was Wade Chapel. The Hiner Cemetery itself holds graves dating all the way back to 1872.

And among those buried there, at least seven veterans of the American Civil War. Seven men who lived through that war, made their way to Parker County, built lives, and now rest in that ground together. A church, a school, a community, and a cemetery full of stories.

That's Hiner, Texas, held up by the memory of people who helped strangers and donated land and answered when somebody had to be first.

What the marker says

According to local tradition the community of Hiner was established mainly through the efforts of James J. Barnett who settled in Parker County in 1857. Area family legends and accounts of Barnett helping newcomers with transportation and temporary housing abound. Wade Chapel Methodist Church, built on land donated by Mary W. Wade adjacent to the Hiner Cemetery about 1870, served as a school and community center; the Reverend James Hiner was its first minister. The cemetery, with graves dating to 1872, contains the graves of at least seven veterans of the American Civil War. (1992)