Peniel
Greenville, Hunt County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Religious community founded in 1899 in conjunction with the establishment of Texas Holiness University on this site by E. C. DeJernett and B. A. Cordell. Title deeds prohibited sale or use of alcoholic drinks and tobacco, and practice of "worldly amusements," such as card playing and dancing. Post office opened in 1901, with name of "Holiness"; changed in 1902 to "Peniel," for a biblical site. The town was incorporated in 1906. The university continued to operate until 1920, when it was moved to Oklahoma. The city was annexed Greenville in 1957, and the post office discontinued.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In 1899 E. C. DeJernett and B. A. Cordell founded both Texas Holiness University and a religious community on this site, its deeds forbidding alcohol, tobacco, and "worldly amusements" like cards and dancing. The town took the biblical name Peniel in 1902 and incorporated in 1906, while the university operated until 1920 before moving to Oklahoma. Peniel was eventually annexed by neighboring Greenville in 1957.
Why it matters
Peniel captures the American impulse to build entire towns around religious and educational ideals, a pattern of faith-based community that dotted the turn-of-the-century landscape.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · E. C. DeJernett
- · B. A. Cordell
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
First Presbyterian Church of Greenville
Greenville, TX
Founded in 1880, this Presbyterian congregation met in a courthouse and an opera house before building a home of its own, and it has served Greenville for well over a century. Beyond worship, its members turned to volunteer work, overseas missions, and a distinctive learning center supporting families dealing with learning disabilities. Through those efforts the church became a spiritual, educational, and social anchor for the city.
First Baptist Church of Josephine
Josephine, TX
In 1888, Sam and Mrs. Tarrant gathered local families at the Reed's Chapel schoolhouse to organize a Baptist congregation under first pastor W.M. Wolfe, and a summer brush-arbor revival quickly added 27 members. The church grew from a wooden sanctuary around 1890 to a three-story brick building in 1911 and a modern sanctuary in 1964, its dirt-floor tabernacle hosting two-week revivals with organist Ella Smith serving for more than seventy years. When the town school was rebuilt in 1936–37, the church even sheltered its high school classes.
Blanton School
Wolfe City, TX
Built in 1923, Blanton School was one of thousands of schools for Black children created through the partnership of educator Booker T. Washington and Sears president Julius Rosenwald, who matched funds raised by the local African American community. Its design maximized natural light and ventilation, and its calendar bent to the cotton harvest so students could work the fields each fall. With just three teachers for seventy students in grades one through eight, it served Wolfe City's Black families until Hunt County schools integrated in 1965.
Sunny Point Cemetery
Cumby, TX
A.J. Weathers deeded this Hopkins County land for a cemetery and school in 1881, and the first known burial — Mary W. Brasher — followed the next year. Several generations of founding families rest here alongside veterans of American conflicts reaching back to the Civil War, while the nearby Sunny Point School served the community until it consolidated into the Cumby district. A cemetery association still gathers each May in a tradition decades old.