Evans Chapel Church
Leona, Leon County, Texas
Marker Inscription
EVANS CHAPEL UNITED METHODIST CHURCH The Evans Chapel Church was built in 1886 on two acres along Mustang Creek given by W. J. Cox to trustees of the Methodist Episcopal Church, south. Arrival of settlers from the old south to this area began about 1840. The William P. Evans family settled here from Alabama in 1845 and the community came to bear their name. Residents of Evans Chapel Community decided they needed a church and a new school in the mid-1880s. The church was established with an adjoining cemetery and a new school was built. The original frame building with wood siding served until 1919 when it was damaged by a fire. The congregation erected an identical church that still serves today. RECORDED TEXAS HISTORIC LANDMARK – 2014
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Settlers from the Old South began arriving on Mustang Creek around 1840, and the William P. Evans family gave the surrounding community its name after coming from Alabama in 1845. In the mid-1880s residents built both a school and, in 1886, a Methodist Episcopal Church, South on two acres donated by W. J. Cox. After fire damaged the original frame building in 1919, the congregation rebuilt an identical church that still stands.
Why it matters
Evans Chapel embodies the church-and-school core of a Southern migrant farming community, an institution-building pattern repeated across rural post-Civil War Texas.
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Related people
- · William P. Evans
- · W. J. Cox
Themes & tags
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