Hopewell Church and Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and here's how I'm gonna pass it along to you. Way out in Wood County, there's a place called Hopewell Church and Cemetery, and its story starts the way a lot of good Texas stories start, real humble, and real determined. Back in 1855, the Hopewell Primitive Baptist Church was established, and in those early days the congregation didn't have anything fancy to meet in.

They gathered under a brush arbor first, then a log house. Just folks and faith and the open sky overhead. Now, a brush arbor and a log house will do when you're gettin' started, but membership has a way of outgrowing humble beginnings.

So as the congregation grew, a larger church building was erected. Then came 1876, and a man named John R. Moore did something worth remembering.

He donated three acres of land, set aside for the church and for a cemetery. Three acres, given over to the community, to the living and to the dead alike. The cemetery took its first recorded soul in 1879, when Henry Nixon was buried there.

The ground had been given, and now it was being kept. Over the years, others followed. State Representative George Turner Hinson is buried in that cemetery.

So are veterans of several wars. Think about that for a moment, the kind of history resting quiet under those trees in Wood County. The congregation kept on.

In 1947 a new church was erected, and then in 1977 a fellowship hall was added. Started under a brush arbor in 1855, and still going. That is not a short story, friends.

That is a community that decided, more than a century ago, it was going to hold on, and it did.

What the marker says

The Hopewell Primitive Baptist Church was established in 1855 and met in a brush arbor and log house. As membership increased, a larger church building was erected. In 1876 John R. Moore donated three acres of land for church and cemetery purposes. The first recorded burial was that of Henry Nixon in 1879. State Representative George Turner Hinson is also buried here, as are veterans of several wars. A new church was erected in 1947 and a fellowship hall was added in 1977. The church and cemetery continue to serve the community as they have more more than a century. (1997)