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Wood County History

By LOU MALLORY - Chairperson, Wood County Historical Commission

 By JAMES R. PHILLIPS, June 25, 2002

 New Hope Cemetery is located approximately 3.3 miles east of Mineola in Wood County, Texas. It is on the west side of Farm Road 2422 one-tenth of a mile south of U.S. Highway 80.

 The new Hope community of Wood County began when an "influx of planters from Louisiana" arrived in approximately 1862 hoping to "regain their fortunes." The Dodson, Dyess, Greer, Parmer, Richey and Simmons families were pioneers in this southern section of the county. Wood County was organized in 1850.

 After the arrival of the settlers, the community life began with the organization of the church. The New Hope Baptist Church was organized in 1864 and it is believed that the New Hope Cemetery originated during the same time. In 1884 the New Hope public school district was established and continued until the early 1960s when it consolidated with the Mineola Independent School District. Today, the life of the community is centered around the church, the cemetery, and the annual school reunion.

 The new Hope Baptist Church was organized August 6th, 1864 in "Greer's Neighborhood," which is in the southern part of Wood County near the Sabine River. The site of the first election in Wood County in 1850 was on Gaines Greer's farm.

 The cemetery is believed to have been established during the Civil War. D.B. Hart is mentioned as the person that granted use of this land as a cemetery. That has not been confirmed. Wood County Courthouse burned in 1878 and in 1924, and many valuable records have been lost. The cemetery is unusual in that Confederate veterans and a Union veteran are buried there.

 The cemetery was already in use by 1865, when early settler George Dyess died. Family members tried to carry him to New Hope, but the wagon kept bogging down in the mud. He was buried about one mile north of the New Hope Cemetery in what is now the Dyess Cemetery. It contains the graves of George and Mary Crump Dyess.

 An early custom was to pile rocks on top of a grave, which is a cairn. There are approximately 27 cairns' some of them are believed to date from the Civil War era. The oldest tombstone is for Sarah J. Fouse who died on January 12th, 1875, aged about 36 years.

 In 1890, the church re-organized with the same members and pastor as Stephen's Chapel Missionary Baptist Church of Christ. From 1890 until 1917, the church was located near the cemetery on present day FM 2422. The church had used a brush arbor near Black Branch, a stream sometimes used for baptisms. In 1916, the church was again re-organized and renamed the New Hope Baptist Church.

 Parishioners of the Davis Chapel Methodists Church in the Democrat community also used New Hope Cemetery. In 1916, Davis Chapel was replaced by Smith Chapel, which was built in the Hoard (formerly called Democrat) community in honor of W.H. Smith. He is buried in the cemetery.

 The cemetery had been used for over 50 years when on April 24th, 1917, I.G. Bromberg, C.M. Dozier, and M.H. Landers sold the land out of the Hilarie Sanchez survey where the cemetery was located. These men sold it to the deacons of the New Hope Baptist Church for one dollar. The deacons were W.H. Thompson, H.H. Wilson, A.B. Hopper, W.M. Carter, and B.A. Wilson.

 Bromberg, a Jewish immigrant, was a Mineola merchant and local philanthropist. He also was an early contributor to the Mineola school system and funded the first library in Mineola, Bromberg Memorial Library at Mineola High School.

 Landers was a Mineola native, civic leader, and attorney. Deacons and community leaders, Thompson and Hopper, are both buried in the cemetery.

 On August 10th, 1917, the congregation acquired the present site of the church. At that time the church moved to its present location on Farm Road 1801 which is also Old U.S. Highway 80. Even though the church did not retain the New Hope name permanently until 1917, that name was used for the cemetery and the community.

 The first Saturday in August was the annual working day where lunch would be served and families would work at the cemetery weeding and raking. At this time the graves were kept as barrows. A barrow is mounded dirt without grass over a grave. The cemetery held an annual memorial day on the first Sunday in August. Through the years the tabernacle was modernized with a cement floor and seats from the New Hope school auditorium were added. This tabernacle is used for the annual memorial service.

 On August 21st, 1973, a trust agreement was signed between Cecil Binford, David McClenny, Oveal Belcher, Hubert Baber, as deacons of New Hope Baptist Church, and the original trustees of the New Hope Cemetery Association. These original trustees were J.H. Simmons, J.L. Fulgham, and Barton S. Hill, all of whom were buried in the cemetery.

 The deacons of the church acted as caretakers of the cemetery until August 5th, 1974, when Deacons Binford, McClenny, Belcher and Baber sold the cemetery for one dollar to the New Hope Cemetery Association. The association was established to create a trust to provide a source of revenue for the care, upkeep, and maintenance of the New Hope Cemetery. Binford, McClenny and Belcher were buried in the cemetery.

 The association moved the memorial day to the first Sunday in June and hired a caretaker to maintain the cemetery. In 2001, the New Hope School moved its annual reunion to the Saturday preceding the memorial day to accommodate those wishing to return to the community for both events.

 In addition to pioneer families such as the Greers, Dodsons, Richeys, Parmers, and Simmons, other historical figures are buried in the cemetery. Among those buried there are a Kansas state legislator and Union veteran of the Civil War, a pastor of the New Hope Baptist Church who had been principal of the New Hope school, and a former World War II prisoner of war and Purple Heart recipient.

 Albert Woodin, is the Union veteran of the Civil War buried at New Hope Cemetery. He was born July 19th, 1843 in Saratoga County, N.Y. He enlisted as a private in Company F of the13th New York Volunteer Heavy Artillery. He was discharged in early 1865 on a surgeon's certificate of disability (heart disease). He married Rebecca Rapp in 1866 and they lived in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where he attended Ann Arbor University. They moved to Missouri where he was a farmer and an active minister of the Christian church. In 1878, they moved to Graham County, Kansas where he was elected state representative in 1882. He was a member of the Grand Army of the Republic. The Woodins had seven children. She died in 1892 and he moved to Wood County and joined New Hope Baptist Church on July 27th, 1896. He died on September 25th, 1924.

 The Rev. William Richard Phillips is the former pastor and school principal who is buried at New Hope Cemetery. He was born on October 2nd, 1880 in the Redland community. He went to school at Macedonia and attended a normal school in Wood County. His wife Ida died in early 1905 which left him to raise their daughter. In 1906 he married Maude Griffin. They were the parents of four children. He taught school at Concord and was a teacher and principal in the New Hope School. He was an active leader in the Baptist Missionary Association serving on the board of trustees of Jacksonville College from 1917 through 1934. He was the pastor of New Hope Baptist Church from 1907 to 1910, and again from 1927 until his death on May 2nd, 1934. He and his wife Maude and two of his children are buried at the New Hope Cemetery.

 Sgt. Ernie Edward Alexander was born on December 23rd, 1917. He married Myrtle Dodson, a descendant of the pioneer Dodson family of Wood County. He was in the U.S. Army during World War II and became a sergeant. During the war, he was captured in Europe and became a prisoner of war. He received the Purple Heart medal. He later became a schoolteacher and an administrator. He died on August 19th, 1991 and was buried in the New Hope Cemetery. Two years later, his wife Myrtle was buried beside him.

 There are over 80 veterans of the United States buried at New Hope. There are five known Confederate soldiers and on Union veteran. There are ten World War I veterans, 35 World War II veterans, 11 Korean War veterans, three who were veterans of both World War II and Korea, one Vietnam War veteran and one veteran of the Persian Gulf War.

 Peacetime veterans include 13 U.S. Army veterans, two U.S. Air Force veterans, and one U.S. Navy veteran. Members of fraternal organizations buried at New Hope include the Masonic Lodge, the Eastern Star, and Woodmen of the World, New Hope Camp.

 The heritage of the cemetery is European and Christian. Tombstones face east. Although some Roman Catholics are buried at New Hope, the cemetery is predominantly Protestant. There were African-American members of New Hope Baptist Church since its beginning. However, it is not known if any were buried in the cemetery. Burials usually are descendents of the New Hope community's Baptist and Methodist settlers of European descent.

 There are three sections which were named by James R. Phillips to simplify directions in a survey dated May 28th, 2002. The Hill Section is closest to FM 2422. The Oak Grove Section is in the middle. The Tabernacle Section contains that historic structure and is the oldest part. A boundary road runs the perimeter of the cemetery. Roads separate each section.

 There are nearly 1,000 people buried in the New Hope Cemetery. It is approximately 140 years old and has served the community from the Civil War era until today.