Cooper-Reid Home
Woodville, Tyler County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Built 1850. Home of Congressman Samuel B. Cooper (1850-1918). Bought 1903 by S. H. Reid; lived in continuously by Reids. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1968 Restored by Mr. and Mrs. S. D. O'Brien
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Built in 1850, this Woodville home belonged to Samuel Bronson Cooper (1850–1918), who rose to serve as a United States Congressman from Texas. In 1903 the house passed to S. H. Reid, and the Reid family lived in it continuously for generations before it was restored in the twentieth century. Recorded as a Texas Historic Landmark in 1968, it links a small East Texas town to national politics. The home stands as a well-preserved example of mid-nineteenth-century Texas domestic architecture.
Why it matters
The house connects a modest county town to the halls of Congress, a reminder that national leaders often emerged from—and returned to—rural America.
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Related people
- · Samuel B. Cooper
- · S. H. Reid
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
The Rev. Acton Young
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Born in Tennessee in 1823, the Rev. Acton Young settled in the East Texas piney woods and married into a family tied to one of the region's earliest Protestant congregations. Licensed as a Methodist minister, he rode a wide circuit from the 1840s until his death in 1873, serving Woodville and many other communities from a family home that also housed a store. His son-in-law Bronson Cooper later went on to the United States Congress.
Woodville Magnolia Cemetery
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Original Site of Bethel Baptist Church
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Organized by early settlers including Thomas Rock, Milton McQueen and Mary Parsons, Bethel Baptist Church was the first congregation in Tyler County. Worshippers met in the courthouse until their own building went up in 1852. The last of that original structure came down in 1957, and the church's first bell is now mounted at this site.
Home of James Edward Wheat
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