Hopkins County, Texas | African American Records

Cemeteries |  Churches |  Communities |  Families |  Lynchings and Mob Violence
Marriages |  Military |  Property |  Schools |  Slave Schedules |  Writings

Cemeteries

Black Oak Cemetery,
From I-30 turn south on 154, at first red light, turn left on hwy 11, turn right on FM road 69. You will pass the Galilee cemetery on your right, keep going till you come to the Black Oak Church on your right. Both black and white cemeteries will be on the church grounds. White cemetery is first, and the black cemetery joins it on the south.

Pleasant Hill,
From I 30, turn south on 2297, turn right on 1176, one will run into 1175 turn right, church and cemetery will be your left.

Sandifer Cemetery,
located in the Sandfield Community, and the church there is called Independence.

St Luke Cemetery
From I 30, take Hwy 19 north, which will be loop around Sulphur Springs. Turn left on FM Road 2285. After passing behind the dam, turn right on 4762. The cemetery will be on your left, behind St. Luke’s church. The cemetery is well kept and has a nice fence around it.

Pierce Chapel Cemetery - Needmore

Deaton Church Cemetery - Mr. Vernon

East Caney Cemetery
The East Caney Cemetery is separated by Hopkins County Farm Road 3345. These two separate divisions are labeled as the "East Side" and "West Side". The east side is the eldest of the two with intermediate dates from the year 1892.

Hopkins County Blacks Buried In Other Counties

Churches

African Methodist Church
from before 1868, mentioned in Lee Pierce's slave narrative

Morning Chapel Baptist Church
"This congregation was organized in 1870. On Sunday, August 19, 1992, this fellowship celebrated its 122nd anniversary. During this celebration, the church also burned its mortgage, freeing the congregation from all indebtedness on the church property."
Black Churches in Texas: a Guide to Historic Congregations, by Clyde McQeen

Communities, Neighborhoods and Settlements

Birch Creek - Pleasant Hill "...began when a white man named George Wynn deeded acreage at Emancipation to each of his three children by a half-Indian, half-black freedwoman." See FREEDOM COLONIES: INDEPENDENT BLACK TEXANS IN THE TIME OF JIM CROW, By Thad Sitton, James H. Conrad

Center Point, Famed opera singer, Barbara Smith Conrad, grew up in Center Point and has nice things to say about it in the documentary of her life, When I Rise. See TexasEscapes.com - Center Point.

The History of the East Caney Community

East End (Sulphur Springs)

Galilee

Harmony

Lehigh (the former name of the black section of Sulphur Bluffs)

Sand Field was a linked community with Reilly Springs. See FREEDOM COLONIES: INDEPENDENT BLACK TEXANS IN THE TIME OF JIM CROW, By Thad Sitton, James H. Conrad

History of the Black Community at Sulphur Bluff

Families

The Alsobrooks Organization
Arnold Alsobrooks
Dillard L. Alsobrooks
Fred Lincoln Alsobrooks
Nathan E. Alsobrooks
Sampson Crisp Family

Military

Jeff Mabry (or Mabray, Mabrey) was Hopkins County's only black Confederate Veteran. He was born in Georgia in the early 1800s and died the 7th of June 1929. For more information please see: BLACK SOUTHERNERS IN CONFEDERATE ARMIES: A COLLECTION OF HISTORICAL ACCOUNTS, edited by Charles K. Barrow, Joe Henry Segars

Mob Violence, Extra-judicial Killings, Lynchings

Reconstruction through Disenfrhanchisement up to WWI

Marriages

Black Marriages 1865-1875, Extracted by June E. Tuck
The first recording of Black marriages in Hopkins County was after the civil war and were recorded in a separate book. Some only show the marriage license as being issued, but not returned for recording.

Schools

NEW! Check this lovely photo of students at the Frederick Douglass High School,Sulphur Springs - 1934.

Schools in Hopkins County, 1923 - 1924
Colored schools of Hopkins County
Not including Independent Districts

Dist. 4 - Mrs. Chas Rogers, Miss Rosetta Pruitt
Dist. 15 - H. E. Minter, Eddie Hall
Dist. 25 - Edgar Nash
Dist. 41 - W. S. Pannell
Dist. 68 - C. H. Epting
Dist. 71 - Maxie Nash
Dist. 77 - A. L. Anders, Mallie Givens
Dist. 84 - W. H. Hughes
Dist. 86 - C. L. Anders
Dist. 93 - Oliver Askew, L. E. Askew

Number of male principals - 8
Number of male assistants - 1
Number female principals - 2
Number of female assistants - 4
Number of male teachers holding second grade certificates - 5
Number of female teachers holding second grade certificates - 3
Number of male teaches holding first grade certificates - 3
Number of female teachers holding first grade certificates - 1
Number of male teachers holding permanent certificates - 1
Number of female teachers holding permanent certificates - 1

Average salary per month paid male teachers - $81.10
Average salary per month paid female teachers - $68.20
Annual salary paid male teachers - $486.00
Annual salary paid female teachers - 409.00

Property

Assessment Roll of the County of Hopkins for Ad Valorem and Income and Salary Tax for 1868, by J.P. Gist

Slave Schedule

Slave Schedules for Hopkins County, Texas, 1850 and 1860

1850 Slave Schedule Complete

Writings, Books, and Journals with Mentions of Hopkins County

Out of the Darkness | The Black Faces of Hopkins County, by Bobby McDonald

Freedom colonies: independent Black Texans in the time of Jim Crow,
By Thad Sitton, James H. Conrad

Born in Slavery | Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1938

Slave Narrative: Lee Anderson Pierce

Slave Narrative: J.N. Brown

Jet, Oct 28, 1954
Home Destroyed, Texas NAACP Head Flees To Ohio
The militant president of the Sulphur Springs, Texas, NAACP branch, Hardy W. Ridge, and his wife, Eleanor, fled to Cleveland after white citizens blasted their home and threatened his life for advocating the mixing of the town's public schools. Former owner of a grocery store, Ridge accused Texas policeof telling him they couldn't give him "much protection."

Advancing Democracy: African Americans and the Struggle for Access and Equity in Higher Education in Texas, by Amilcar Shabazz