Hugh B. Johnston

Hardin, TX

This Liberty County congregation traces its roots to 1876, when the Rev. J. R. D. Taylor established a Methodist church called China Grove, holding early services in a nearby log building. A chapel went up in 1886 on land donated by businessman William F. "Bee" Hardin, and the church changed names over the years, becoming Hardin Chapel Methodist Church by 1910. Fire destroyed a 1939 sanctuary in 1958, but the congregation rebuilt and has remained active for more than 120 years.

Liberty, TX

General Sam Houston built a home here in 1843 and lived in it until 1845, and by 1846 a post office had opened to serve the little settlement. The town's fortunes flickered over the following decades, its post office closing and reopening before the community was renamed Ironwood in 1869. By 1900 the post office was shuttered for good, and the town faded from the map.

Batson, TX

Batson Prairie takes its name from a pioneer family who settled here by the 1840s, but much of the community grew from the generosity of the Guedry family, who donated land for a school, a church, and a cemetery. A one-room schoolhouse opened in 1896, the Batson Prairie Baptist Church organized in 1897, and Guedry Cemetery—now holding more than 2,000 burials—recorded its first grave in 1900. Together these institutions formed the heart of community life for generations.

Liberty, TX

William Hardin, born in Georgia in 1801, became a leading figure in the Anglo settlement that grew into Liberty, Texas. He served as alcalde and first judge of the Liberty municipality and was a delegate to the Convention of 1833, one of the gatherings that pressed Mexican Texas toward autonomy and, ultimately, revolution. He died in Galveston in 1839, in the early years of the Republic he helped shape.