Smith Chapel United Methodist Church
Mineola, Wood County, Texas
Marker Inscription
SMITH CHAPEL UNITED METHODIST CHURCH ABOUT 1885, MEMBERS OF THE HOARD COMMUNITY ORGANIZED DAVIS CHAPEL CHURCH AND MET IN THE DEMOCRAT SCHOOLHOUSE AND A NEARBY BRUSH ARBOR. THE CHURCH WAS LATER RENAMED DEMOCRAT METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, SOUTH, AND THEN SMITH CHAPEL. IN 1915, B. B. HART SOLD LAND FOR A NEW CHURCH, WITH 52 MEMBERS PLEDGING TO HELP WITH LABOR AND FINANCES. SAWMILL OWNER W. H. SMITH CONTRIBUTED MUCH OF THE MATERIALS AND MONEY. UNTIL 1950, THE CHURCH WAS PASTORED ONLY BY SUPPLY PASTORS. IN 1957, CROW METHODIST CHURCH MERGED WITH SMITH CHAPEL; SELLING THE PROPERTY AT CROW HELPED FINANCE THE CURRENT SANCTUARY. TODAY, SMITH CHAPEL CONTINUES AS A CENTER OF WORSHIP AND FELLOWSHIP FOR THE COMMUNITY. 175 YEARS OF TEXAS INDEPENDENCE * 1836-2011
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
About 1885 members of the Hoard community organized what began as Davis Chapel, meeting in the Democrat Schoolhouse and a brush arbor before the congregation took the name Smith Chapel. In 1915 B.B. Hart sold land for a new church, with 52 members pledging labor and money and sawmill owner W.H. Smith supplying much of the material. A 1957 merger with nearby Crow Methodist Church helped finance the present sanctuary, keeping the congregation at the center of rural Wood County life.
Why it matters
Built by the pooled labor and lumber of its own members, Smith Chapel is a small monument to the self-reliance of rural Texas farming communities.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · B.B. Hart
- · W.H. Smith
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Sarah Rosalie Patten Buchanan
Mineola, TX
Widowed at 29 with three young children after the death of her senator husband, Rosa Patten Buchanan turned to teaching and rose to become a full professor, Dean of Women, and head of the English department at Sam Houston State Normal College. Appointed to that post in 1892 by her friend Governor James S. Hogg, she spent decades training Texas teachers before retiring to Mineola, where she supervised the county's civilian war work during World War I and served on the school board. She died in 1941 at age 85.
Mineola Public Library
Mineola, TX
The Mineola library grew from the vision of teacher Vivian Williams Lott, who was inspired after seeing a public library while working in San Benito in 1913. After an early effort stalled, citizens gathered in her home and formally established the library in 1950, opening it in a junior-high room with about 600 books. Through moves and a major 1959 gift from community leader Harry Meredith, whose foundation later became its benefactor, the institution endured as a center for literacy.
John Creighton Buchanan
Mineola, TX
A Louisiana native who came to East Texas to practice law, John Creighton Buchanan became the first Wood County Attorney in 1876 and won a seat in the Texas Senate two years later, representing five counties until his death at just 34. A committed champion of public education, he authored legislation to establish teacher-training "normal schools," secured funding for Mineola's schools, and drafted the bill that created the University of Texas. His brief career left an outsized mark on the young state's schools.
Harry W. Meredith
Mineola, TX
Harry Meredith arrived in Mineola around 1907 from Kentucky by way of a Kentucky brick plant, and spent the next half-century shaping the town from behind a banker's desk, serving as bank president, board chairman, and briefly as mayor. Late in life he turned his fortune toward the public good, and the Meredith Foundation he organized still funds the town's library, civic center, and youth and church programs. His home once stood on this site, a fixture of the community he reshaped.