Shankleville Community
Burkeville, Newton County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Named for Jim and Winnie Shankle, known as first Newton County blacks to buy land and become local leaders after gaining freedom by emancipation. Both were born in slavery: Jim in 1811, Winnie in 1814. After Winnie and her three children were sold to a Texan, Jim ran away from his Mississippi owner. He traveled by night, foraged for food, swam streams (including the Mississippi River), walking out of sight the 400 miles to East Texas. At dusk one day he found Winnie beside her master's spring (800 ft. W). After slipping out food for several days, Winnie told her master, who arranged to buy Jim. The couple worked side by side, bringing up Winnie's children and six of their own: Wash Rollins, Tobe Perkins, Mary McBride, George, Henry, Houston, John, Harriet (Odom), B. M. (Lewis). In 1867, they began buying land, and with associate, Steve McBride, eventually owned over 4,000 acres. In their neighborhood were prosperous farms, churches, a cotton gin, grist mills, sawmills, schools-- including McBride College (1883-1909), built by Steve McBride. Jim and Winnie Shankle are buried in Jim Shankle Cemetery (600 Ft. SW). A great-grandson, A. T. Odom, has been guardian of this heritage. Annual homecomings have been held since 1941.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Jim and Winnie Shankle, both born into slavery, became the first Black landowners and community leaders in Newton County after emancipation—but their story begins with an act of extraordinary devotion. Separated when Winnie and her children were sold to a Texan, Jim escaped his Mississippi owner and traveled 400 miles by night, swimming rivers, to find her. Freed and reunited, the couple and their allies eventually amassed over 4,000 acres, anchoring a thriving Black community of farms, churches, mills, and even McBride College (1883–1909).
Why it matters
Shankleville stands as a powerful monument to African American self-determination during Reconstruction, when freedpeople built landowning communities and institutions of their own in the face of enormous odds.
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Related people
- · Jim Shankle
- · Winnie Shankle
- · Steve McBride
- · A. T. Odom
Related events
- · Emancipation
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Stephen Alexander McBride
Burkeville vicinity, TX
Born into slavery in Texas in 1834, Stephen McBride helped found Shankleville after emancipation, buying land in northern Newton County with Jim Shankle to build a self-sustaining African-American community of homes, churches, and businesses. McBride himself ran a cotton gin, store, blacksmith shop, and several mills. His most lasting gift was McBride College, opened in 1883 by a man who could neither read nor write yet prized education above all for the young.
Original Site, Burkeville Methodist Church
Burkeville, TX
In 1850 John and Mary Burke sold a dollar's worth of land for a Methodist church and cemetery in Burkeville, the town founded by the Roman Catholic Burke whose 1855 grave is the oldest known here. In an era served by circuit-riding preachers, the congregation included both black and white worshipers, and the simple frame church doubled as a schoolhouse in the 1870s and as a funeral chapel for all faiths. The building was removed from the site in 1948.
Site of J.H. Rowe School
Jasper, TX
Formal public schooling for African American students near Jasper began in 1875 at Cold Springs and moved to a Jasper campus in 1924, the same year James Hoff Rowe arrived as administrator. A graduate of Prairie View and Hampton Institute who had served as a dean at Prairie View, Rowe led the school to expanding scope and stature until his death in 1943. Renamed in his honor, the school served the community until integration closed it in 1968.
Dixie Freedom Colony
Jasper, TX
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