Smyrna Union Church
Emory, Rains County, Texas
Marker Inscription
This house of worship is the site of the old school house in which, on Sept. 2, 1902, Farmers Educational and Cooperative Union of America (National Farmers Union) established its first local union. The stated purpose was "To secure equity, establish justice and apply the Golden Rule." The ten men who founded "Farmers Union" were residents of this area. The organization which they here established has become known and respected throughout the agricultural world. This tablet is erected to honor their names and memory. Jesse Adams, W. T. Cochran, Tom Donaldson, Newt Gresham, J. B. Morris, T. J. Pound, O. H. Rhodes, Dr. Lee Seamster, W. S. Sisk, and J. S. Turner; presented by James G. Patton, President, National Farmers Union, Denver, Colorado.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
On this spot in 1902 stood the schoolhouse where ten local farmers founded the first local of the Farmers Educational and Cooperative Union of America, better known as the National Farmers Union. Vowing to "secure equity, establish justice and apply the Golden Rule," the organization grew from this rural Texas meeting into a national force in American agriculture. A church later rose on the site, and a tablet honors the founders by name.
Why it matters
This humble schoolhouse gathering launched one of the most influential farm organizations in the country, part of the broad agrarian movement through which farmers sought collective power in the industrial age.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
At the turn of the twentieth century, American farmers felt squeezed from every side. Crop prices were often low, and in the cotton South many farmers were trapped in debt to merchants and landlords. Railroads, banks, and middlemen seemed to hold all the cards. A farmer could work all year and end up owing more than when he started.
Farmers had tried to fight back before. In the late 1800s, movements such as the Grange and the Farmers' Alliance, which had deep roots in Texas, organized cooperatives and pushed for political reforms, and their energy helped fuel the Populist Party. By around 1900 much of that movement had faded, but the problems that inspired it had not.
That is the backdrop for what happened here in rural Rains County in 1902. Local farmers decided once again to band together, this time in an organization built around education and cooperation.
People & events
On September 2, 1902, a group of ten men from this area met in the old schoolhouse that once stood on this spot. They founded the first local of the Farmers Educational and Cooperative Union of America, known today as the National Farmers Union. Their stated purpose was to secure equity, establish justice, and apply the Golden Rule, which was a remarkably moral goal for an economic organization.
The tablet lists all ten founders by name, including Newt Gresham, who is usually remembered as the driving spirit behind the effort. The others were Jesse Adams, W. T. Cochran, Tom Donaldson, J. B. Morris, T. J. Pound, O. H. Rhodes, Dr. Lee Seamster, W. S. Sisk, and J. S. Turner. They were neighbors, men who knew the struggles of farming in this corner of Texas firsthand.
The idea spread quickly beyond Rains County. The organization grew into a national body, and years later its national president, James G. Patton, presented this tablet on behalf of a union by then headquartered in Denver, Colorado. It was a long way from a country schoolhouse, and the tablet is a way of saying the movement never forgot where it began.
Its place in the American story
The National Farmers Union became one of the major voices of American agriculture. It championed family farmers, promoted farm cooperatives for buying supplies and selling crops, and pushed for policies it believed would give farm families a fairer share. For more than a century it has spoken up for rural people in state capitols and in Washington.
The story here is also part of a larger American pattern. In the industrial age, ordinary people in many trades learned that they had more power together than alone. Workers formed unions, and farmers formed cooperatives and associations like this one. The Farmers Union carried the spirit of the earlier agrarian movements into the new century.
It is striking that such an influential organization began not in a city office but in a one-room country schoolhouse. The humble setting is part of the lesson. Big national movements often start with a handful of neighbors deciding that things could be better.
If you visit
You'll find this site in Rains County, near Emory, in the rolling farm country of northeast Texas. Today a church, Smyrna Union Church, stands where the old schoolhouse once was, so look for the tablet that honors the ten founders.
Take a moment to read the names aloud. These were ordinary local farmers, and it is easy to imagine them gathered on a late-summer evening in 1902, talking over hard times and deciding to do something about it. Look around at the surrounding fields and you're seeing the same kind of countryside that shaped them.
This stop fits nicely into a back-roads drive through northeast Texas, especially for travelers interested in rural life and farming history. Please remember that this is an active place of worship and treat the grounds with respect.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
- · Newt Gresham
Related events
- · Founding of the National Farmers Union
Themes & tags
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Founded in 1887 by H. W. Martin as "The Argus," this paper became the "Rains County Leader" by 1900 and remained the county's only newspaper. Tom W. Hill, Sr. bought it in 1904 and edited it for more than three decades, beginning a remarkable family stewardship. From 1937 onward the Hill family—father, sons, and daughters—carried the paper forward across generations.
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Among the earlier-settled parts of Texas, this area saw J. H. Hooker, its first known settler, build a grist mill on the Sabine River in the 1840s, with emigrants from the Old South arriving after 1840. The county itself was not organized until 1870, taking its name from pioneer legislator Emory Rains, who had represented the surrounding district in the 8th Legislature. Rains County is also celebrated as the birthplace of the Farmers Cooperative and Educational Union of America.
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