Jones Chapel United Methodist Church
Beeville, Bee County, Texas
Marker Inscription
This church, organized in 1888, was originally known as Jones Chapel Methodist Episcopal Church. At first, it was part of a circuit, and ministers often traveled by stagecoach or horseback as they rotated Sunday services among churches. Jones Chapel shared the Rev. J.T. Jacobs with Fannin Street Methodist Church in Goliad, and during its first year held services in a schoolhouse. In 1889, members built a sanctuary on land that Capt. A.C. Jones donated to three former slaves who served as trustees of the new church. Charter members included Classie Douglas, Ann Felix, Felix Garner, Lawson Green, Serena Hodge, Ellen Jones, Bell Lott, Leanna Lott, Mose Lott, J.J. McCloud, Carrie McCampbell, P.M. McCarty, Kimmie Nancy, Elvira Newton, Rebecca Simms, Wesley Simms, I.E. Starnes, George Steward, Katy Ware, Sam Ware, Harriet Williams and Mary Williams, and many of the church's early members were former slaves. Although members have remodeled and repaired the church several times over the years and have made additions, such as a bell tower in 1913, the church is still at its original location. The congregation remains active in Beeville's African American community. Members take part in Bee County's Juneteenth festivities and participate in a variety of programs, including outreach ministries to help youth and the economically disadvantaged. Members also aim to provide food and other necessities to shut-ins in the community. Even after more than 100 years, Jones Chapel fervently continues to serve the African American community in Beeville. (2006)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Organized in 1888 as Jones Chapel Methodist Episcopal Church, this Beeville congregation first worshipped in a schoolhouse while circuit-riding ministers rotated among churches by stagecoach and horseback. In 1889 members built a sanctuary on land Capt. A.C. Jones donated to three formerly enslaved men serving as trustees, and many of the church's charter members were themselves formerly enslaved. Still on its original site, the congregation remains active in Beeville's African American community and its Juneteenth celebrations.
Why it matters
Founded by freedpeople barely two decades after emancipation, the church stands as a living monument to African American faith, self-determination, and community in South Texas.
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Related people
- · Rev. J.T. Jacobs
- · Capt. A.C. Jones
Related events
- · Juneteenth
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Lott Canada School
Beeville, TX
Black education in Bee County began in 1876 in Stephen Canada's store, then a small frame schoolhouse, chartered by the county as "Colored Community School Twelve." A larger frame school followed on North Burke Street, where principal J.R. Lockett matched the offerings of the town's white schools until fire destroyed it in 1929. With help from the Chicago-based Julius Rosenwald Fund, a brick school with four classrooms and an auditorium opened in 1931, named for carpenters Mose Lott and Allen Canada — serving until integration closed it in 1964.
St. Rose Cemetery
Beeville, TX
This burial ground grew alongside two Black congregations organized in the 1880s — Bethlehem Missionary Baptist and Jones Chapel United Methodist — and the earliest known grave, that of former slave Nancy Williams, dates to 1901, before the land was formally deeded as a cemetery for African Americans in 1921. Among those resting here are Mose Lott and Allen Canada, who built Beeville's first schoolhouse for Black children, and veterans reaching back to World War I. A community association formed in 1970 to tend the sacred site.
Lott Cemetery
Goliad, TX
Acquired in 1896 and soon renamed for a local African American family, Lott Cemetery holds the graves of trail drivers, cattle-industry workers, and everyday families whose modest wooden crosses and sculpted obelisks trace the ups and downs of the local economy. When the 1902 tornado destroyed a nearby Methodist church and neighborhood, several dozen victims were buried in a communal grave along its eastern edge. Among those resting here are more than thirty veterans, two centenarians, and a man known only as "Bingo," raised by a prominent cattleman's wife.
Fannin Street United Methodist Church
Goliad, TX
Founded in 1872, Fannin Street United Methodist Church was one of the earliest African American congregations in Goliad County, established after emancipation as freedpeople who had worshiped alongside their enslavers formed churches of their own. The small country church—steeply gabled with a four-sided cupola and a Cincinnati-cast bell—weathered a string of catastrophes, most terribly the 1902 tornado that destroyed the building and killed fifty parishioners. Rebuilt in 1903 and struck again by lightning in 1976, the congregation endured, living out its motto that "the church is not the building; it's the people."