West New Hope United Methodist Church
Mt. Pleasant, Titus County, Texas
Marker Inscription
This congregation began in 1886 when the Methodist sanctuary in Tranquil (2 mi. E) was moved to this site. The land was donated by charter members E. J. and E. M. Killingsworth. In 1909, the building was razed to make room for a new structure that would better serve the needs of a growing membership. Over the years, the congregation has made its building available for use by other community churches. Several members of the fellowship have become ordained Methodist ministers.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
This Methodist congregation dates to 1886, when the sanctuary from nearby Tranquil was moved to land donated by charter members E. J. and E. M. Killingsworth. As membership grew, the building was torn down in 1909 and replaced by a larger structure. Over the decades the church shared its building with other community congregations and sent several of its own members into the Methodist ministry.
Why it matters
West New Hope reflects the central place of the country church in rural Texas life, a gathering point that anchored a growing farm community across generations.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · E. J. Killingsworth
- · E. M. Killingsworth
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Bridges Chapel Cemetery
Mount Pleasant vicinity, TX
Relious and Candice Bridges settled here in the late 1850s with Candice's brother Thomas Grissom, and in 1867 the family gave land for a Methodist church and cemetery. Loss came quickly: Mary Bridges Williams died in childbirth in 1868, and both Relious and Candice died on the same October day that year, with six of their children later interred here. A 1904 tornado scattered the fragile wooden markers before order was restored.
Ripley Massacre
Mt. Vernon, TX
Ambrose Ripley brought his family to what was then Red River County in 1837, settling along the Cherokee Trace near the creek that now bears his name. On April 10, 1841, while he was away, a band of Indians attacked the farmstead, killing his eldest son and most of the family; two daughters escaped to a neighboring farm. The attack became a rallying point for President Mirabeau B. Lamar's aggressive frontier policies and spurred the militia campaigns of Edward H. Tarrant to drive Native people from the region.
Gray Rock Cemetery
Mount Vernon, TX
Some of the unmarked graves here may reach back to the 1840s, when the town of Gray Rock grew up along a frontier highway. The oldest headstone belongs to an infant who died in 1872, and a devastating typhoid epidemic in 1899–1900 accounts for a cluster of burials. Though the town vanished after the railroad bypassed it, the cemetery has remained in continuous use and has been tended by a community committee since 1906.
W. R. M. Slaughter Home
Mount Pleasant, TX
Raised in 1855 as a classic dog-trot log cabin — two log pens joined by an open breezeway — this home was later refined with milled siding as frontier life grew more settled. Bought in 1870 by W. R. M. Slaughter, a Confederate veteran who served as county tax assessor and schoolteacher, it even did duty as the Greenhill community's post office before 1900. The single structure quietly served as dwelling, civic office, and communications hub for a rural neighborhood.