New Hope Baptist Church and St. Elmo Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker says about New Hope Baptist Church and St. Elmo Cemetery, out in Freestone County. Somewhere around 1849, pioneers started rolling into this part of Texas.

They came from Alabama, Florida, and Georgia, and they came to stay. Cotton and corn plantations took root and thrived on that land. A school opened up in the 1850s, which was a promising sign, until the Civil War came along from 1861 to 1865 and shut it down.

Meanwhile, the community needed a place to lay its dead. A site on the Manning land grant, centrally situated among the settlers, became a public burial ground. The earliest grave we can document belongs to a man named J.

W. Darden, who died in 1869. Somebody thought to write it down.

Most of the early ones, we may never know. Then came August of 1872, and something worth remembering happened. A Freestone County missionary by the name of Reverend J.

M. Gambrell organized a Baptist church right here in the community. He called it the Little Hope Baptist Church, and he served as its first pastor.

A man named R. B. Anderson took on the role of church clerk.

Little Hope. There's a name that carries some weight, if you think about what these settlers had already been through. In 1875, a schoolhouse went up near that same burial ground on the Manning grant.

The school got a name, St. Elmo, probably borrowed from a popular novel of the nineteenth century. Now that is a thing worth savoring.

Out here on the Texas frontier, somebody knew their books well enough to name a schoolhouse after one. The Baptist congregation held their services inside that schoolhouse all the way until 1886. Then they made some decisions.

They adopted a new name, New Hope, which is a kind of answer to Little Hope if you're listening for it. They bought a six-acre tract that took in the cemetery and the school grounds both. And they built themselves a church.

The original building eventually gave way to a new sanctuary, and that one was remodeled in 1954. By 1974, when this marker was put together, St. Elmo Cemetery Association was administering the affairs of the cemetery.

And that ground, which started with one documented grave in 1869, held about 850 by then. Pioneers from three states, a schoolhouse named for a novel, a congregation that changed its name from Little Hope to New Hope. Some places carry their whole history right there in the details, if you slow down long enough to hear it.

What the marker says

This locality was settled about 1849 by pioneers from Alabama, Florida, and Georgia. Cotton and corn plantations thrived. A school was opened in the 1850s, but closed during the Civil War (1861-65). A site on the centrally-situated Manning land grant became a public burial ground. Earliest documented grave is that of J. W. Darden, who died in 1869. The Little Hope Baptist Church was organized in the community in Aug. 1872, by a Freestone County missionary, the Rev. J. M. Gambrell, who served as the first pastor, with R. B. Anderson as church clerk. In 1875 a schoolhouse was built near the burial ground on the Manning grant. The school was called "St. Elmo", probably for a popular 19th century novel. The Baptist held services in the schoolhouse until 1886; then they adopted "New Hope" as the church name, bought a 6-acre tract that included the cemetery and school grounds, and built a church. Present sanctuary, which replaced that original building, was remodeled in 1954. St. Elmo Cemetery Association administers the affairs of the cemetery, which now (1974) contains about 850 graves.