Huntsville's First United Methodist Church, located at 1016 Sam Houston Avenue, has served as a key institution in Walker County for over 150 years. Throughout its long history, First United Methodist has provided its parishioners with spiritual sustenance and community support. The church has grown over the years experiencing significant change and times of great hardship. Despite its many transformations, however, the church and its congregation have enriched the local community.

The first Methodist congregation in Huntsville began in the 1830s at Martha's Chapel, located ten miles south of town. According to records from the First Baptist Church of Huntsville, on Saturday, February 17, 1855, "it was unanimously voted that the Methodist Brethren at this place have use of this House the second and fourth Sabbaths in each month with the privilege of holding prayer meetings once a week as per their request, etc." In 1857, W.M Barrett constructed the First Methodist church building in Huntsville. Rev. A. Davis served as the church's pastor at the time, while Thomas and Sanford Gibbs, Robert and Williamson Wynne, and Dr. J.A. Thomason served on the board of trustees. Rev. Robert Alexander preached the dedication sermon. In 1888, the brick building was reconstructed to compensate for the growing congregation. In 1900, a large wooden structure was added onto the back of the building, which became the Sunday School department.

In 1910, a fire destroyed the Sunday School and also damaged the main auditorium and organ. Rev. E.W. Solomon led the effort to construct a new building. In 1913, the building project was completed under the pastorate of Rev. R.W. Adams. However, peace was short-lived. On February 25, 1918, the First Methodist building was again destroyed by fire. The community of Huntsville rallied together to rebuild the First Methodist again. In 1919, the church was reconstructed as a duplicate of the previous building. In 1934, the church installed a set of Deagan Tower Chimes, which are today one of a few remaining sets in Texas. Between 1954 and 1972, First United Methodist Church experienced a period of growth, adding an educational building, nursery, a social hall with a kitchen and ten classrooms. In 1991, a new building was constructed, adding church offices, classrooms and an assembly room. First United Methodist Church has thrived in Walker County for more than 150 years because of the strength of its people. Their passion for ministry and mission is FUMC's most lasting legacy.

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During the summer months of 2001, representatives from Huntsville’s Main Street Program worked with faculty members and students from Sam Houston State University to move the historic Roberts-Farris cabin from its location in West Sandy to a prominent site on Huntsville’s downtown square. It is there that the cabin sits today, at the intersection of University Avenue and 11th Street, on the location that Huntsville’s founder, Pleasant Gray, built the region’s first Anglo trading post. Yet, the story of the cabin -- its creator and construction -- is far more interesting than the simple site might suggest today.

Originally built in the mid-1840s, the cabin was intended as a gift from Hezekiah Faris (later Farris) to his stepson, Allen Roberts. Farris himself was a native of Virginia and long-time resident of Tennessee who migrated to Texas in 1835. He fought at the Battle of San Jacinto with Captain James Gillaspie and may have helped to capture the Mexican General Santa Anna. Following the Texian War for Independence, Farris received a headright of land from the new Republic of Texas in February 1838 and settled there with his wife, widow Matilda Roberts. In 1841, Farris and his brother, William, founded a church called Farris Chapel, which provided a home to multiple denominations and served as the basis of a community that exists still today.

Shortly after the completion of the church, Ferris hired a builder to construct a log cabin for his stepson, Allen, who had recently arrived in Texas. Originally located about 15 miles southwest of Huntsville along Sandy Creek, the cabin was constructed with “square-hewn logs and half-dovetail notches” -- a distinctive building style that showed up in several other cabins in the area.

Despite the expert craftsmanship that went into the cabin, the Ferris family moved the structure at least three times, disassembling and rebuilding it as needed. In fact, the cabin has provided shelter for many different people over the last 175 years. During the Great Depression in the 1930s, Alton Farris rented the building to tenant farmers who worked on his property, and one couple even used it as their honeymoon cabin in 1939. Yet, in recent decades, the cabin had fallen into disrepair, functioning primarily as a hay shed and refuge for animals.

In 2001, Farris descendent Maggie Farris Parker donated the cabin and $1000 to the City of Huntsville. Although degeneration and decay had beset the little home, and dry rot and termites had damaged many of its logs, the leaders of Huntsville’s Main Street Program teamed up with Sam Houston State University to restore the structure and move it to a place of prominence on the courthouse square. Tucked on a small lot at the heart of the town founded by Pleasant Gray, the Cabin on the Square now houses a shop where local hand-craft groups sell their wares.

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In 1843, a local merchant and postmaster, Alexander McDonald, constructed Huntsville’s first brick building, which had a "simple rectangle[r] shape with three dormer windows at the attic level." Located at what is now the southeast corner of University Avenue and 12th Street, the first floor of the building housed McDonald's store, which offered a variety of goods for the local community. On the second floor, McDonald and other Freemasons conducted their meetings for the Forrest Masonic Lodge No. 19. Chartered on January 11, 1844, with nine Masons, the lodge predated the formation of Walker County and ranked as the eighth oldest lodge in Texas.

Many of the men who came to Texas in the 1830s and 1840s were Freemasons. Membership in this ancient fraternity helped unite the early Anglo settlers who traveled to the region from diverse social and cultural backgrounds. Freemasons served in pivotal military and political positions during the Texas Revolution, and many went on to serve in major government posts in the new Republic.

The Forrest Masonic Lodge No. 19 boasts several famous early members. After the Texas Revolution in 1836, military hero and Republic of Texas President Sam Houston played a vital role in organizing the Grand Lodge of Texas. William Martin Taylor, Forrest Lodge Worshipful Master in 1849 and Texas Grand Master in 1854, created the uniform Masonic ritual that was adopted by the Texas Grand Lodge in 1858. Henderson Yoakum, known for penning the first history of Texas, served as a Worshipful Master in 1850. And, Governor George Tyler Wood led the Forrest Masonic Lodge No. 19 in 1854.

The lodge has met in four locations throughout its history. Members built the first Lodge Temple at the north end of the Square in 1849. After the building burned in 1881, the Masons constructed another lodge in approximately the same location. Forrest Masonic Lodge No. 19 moved to its present building in 1909.

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Born in 1822, Joshua Houston was raised as a slave on the Lea plantation near Marion, Alabama. When his master, Temple Lea, died in 1834, ownership of Joshua was transferred to Temple's daughter, Margaret Lea. There seems to have been little change in Joshua's situation, however, until Margaret married Sam Houston in 1840. At that time, Joshua became the property of the most well-known man in Texas, and he soon helped Margaret move to her newly adopted state.

During the 1840s, Joshua learned to read and write, and he became a skilled craftsman. In fact, he used his talents as a blacksmith to help build the Houston home at Raven Hill, thirteen miles east of Huntsville, Texas. Joshua also served the Houston family in a number of other capacities. He repeatedly helped the Houston's move, transferring furniture, books, and other property from Cedar Point and Huntsville to Washington-on-the Brazos, Austin, Independence, and for a time even to Washington D.C. These moves required diligent preparation and a skillful hand as a blacksmith and wheelwright.

Beginning some time around 1850, Sam Houston allowed Joshua to hire out as a stage driver and blacksmith to make money of his own. There was only a small profit to be made in such a situation, however, and it was not until 1862 that Joshua's lot changed for good. That fall, after reading about Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, Sam Houston freed Joshua and his other slaves, encouraging them to go out into the wider world. Most of the slaves stayed with Sam Houston until his death in July 1863, however, and a few of them even traveled with Margaret when she moved to Independence later that year.

After the Civil War, Joshua entered an exciting new stage of his life, becoming one of Walker County's leading African American figures. In January 1866, he purchased a tract of land on 10th Street in Huntsville for $120 from Micajah Clark Rogers, the first mayor of the city. In a short time, Joshua had his own two-story house with a blacksmith shop across the street. In fact, his neighborhood grew quickly, and it became known as Rogersville for the beneficent white ally the city's African Americans had in Micajah Rogers.

As Joshua's business developed he played a key role in the local African American church. In April 1867, he joined with William Baines and Strother Green as "trustees for the Freed people's church in the Town of Huntsville." For $50, Joshua and his friends bought property three blocks from the local square, and they became founding member of the new Union Church, which was the first black-owned church in the city. The Union Church served both Baptists and Methodists, and it was also the site of one of the earliest black schools in Huntsville. As Patricia Prather and Jane Monday have argued, "This became the first institution in Huntsville owned collectively by ex-slaves and thus subject to their control. It became much more than a religious institution. Freedmen often met there to share information about how to protect themselves and their families. The church also became an education center where both children and adults began learning to read the Bible and the few other books that were available to them."

Although Joshua no doubt loved the Union Church, the congregation soon grew too large and diverse for a single location. The church split into three separate groups in January 1869. The Methodist Episcopal congregation founded St. James Methodist Episcopal Church at the “Union” site at 14th Street and Avenue M. Members of the African Methodist Episcopal faith founded Allen Chapel AME church on Avenue I and 11th Street a few years later. Meanwhile, Joshua and several dozen other Baptists established the First Baptist Church on 10th Street in Rogersville. It was there that Joshua emerged as a deacon and one of the city's leading figures during Reconstruction.

Although he was busy with church and business obligations, Joshua's public duties took on an additional dimension in 1867, when he was appointed as Huntsville's first African American alderman. As a well-known black Republican and the former slave of a Union sympathizer, Joshua was the type of man Republicans in Texas wanted for their ranks. He was literate; he owned his own business; and he was recognized as a leader in his local community. As the Republican Party enacted a new Military Reconstruction program to stamp out discriminatory state laws and secure a new state constitution, Joshua joined forces with the party at the local level. He was reappointed to the alderman's position in 1870 and was later elected, under the new Texas Constitution, as a county commissioner in 1878 and 1882. Perhaps his greatest political endeavor came in 1888, when he served as a member of the Texas delegation to the Republican National Convention in Chicago, Illinois.

Despite his important work in the political arena, it was in education that Joshua made his most lasting impact. He had been a founding trustee of the first African American school in Huntsville at the Union Church. He was a friend and supporter of the six freedmen--Richard Williams, Joseph Morris, Allen Justice, Green Justice, Sam Sims, and Anderson Bates--who founded a school at Grant's colony, a few miles west of Huntsville. And, Joshua Houston was among a group of thirty or so activists--including Memphis Allen, Alex Wynne, Will Mills, Strother Green, John Wilson, and William Kittrell--who founded and promoted Bishop Ward College in 1883. Although the school failed two years later, due to a lack of funds, Joshua's children and others their age received an enormous jolt from the short-lived project. In fact, it may have been at Bishop Ward that Joshua's son, Samuel Walker Houston, met Professor C.W. Luckie, who encouraged the young boy to pursue his education outside the state of Texas.

By the time Joshua died on January 8, 1902, he had been married three times -- to Anneliza, Mary Green, and Sylvester Baker -- and he had eight children. He provided a formal education for all his children and also helped them and other community members purchase land for homes, churches, and schools. Joshua's contributions made a difference not only in his life but in the lives of others who lived in Walker County.

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Folklorist John Avery Lomax toured prisons in the South to record the voices and music of those who were incarcerated there, particularly African American inmates or as his records indicate, "Negro convicts." Lomax and his son Alan, a student at the University of Texas who assisted him, visited the men's prison at Huntsville several times in the early 1930s.

Though Huntsville officials refused his request to record inmates during his first visit in 1933, he eventually received approval and returned that December with the blessing of Lee Simmons, the Texas Prison System's general manager who also wrote a letter of introduction to aid the team in gaining access to other prisons. Over the next year, the Lomaxes returned multiple times, recording at least 50 vocal and instrumental performances at Huntsville's historic Walls Unit.

Inmates, some with colorful names like Tricky Sam, Track Horse, and Little Brother, sang the blues, spirituals and works songs, and played harmonica instrumentals. Several singers were accompanied by guitar and others by the beat of ax cutting, a typical prison labor job in which inmates worked as a team to complete a task.

Not all inmates were identified by name, and the Lomaxes identified some simply as a "group of Negro convicts." Of those who were identified, at least one, V.R. Parker, was listed in prison records as a "musician." Another, Percy Ridge, was serving a sentence for assault. He was released just a month after he performed "Western Cowboy," but was shot to death in his hometown of Dallas two years later.

With the assistance of Olaf J.S. Ellingson who succeeded Simmons as manager of the prison system, John Lomax returned to Huntsville in May 1939, assisted by his wife Ruby Terrill Lomax. By this time, inmates had their own radio show, "Thirty Minutes Behind the Walls" on WBAP, and the Lomaxes consulted with the program's director before recording. William Longino, a professor at Sam Houston State Teachers College, assisted the Lomaxes at the prison. The team recorded at least nine performances including two instrumentals by inmate Pop Warner on fiddle and an imitation of a cat and dog fighting by convicted armed robber Lawrence Evans who later died in prison.

During this 1939 visit, the Lomaxes also recorded at Professor William Longino's home in Huntsville and at the nearby Goree State Prison for women.

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Following the Civil War, African Americans in Huntsville established their own "Union Church" for worship services and community events. Local black leaders Joshua Houston Sr., William Baines, and Strother Green purchased a desirable downtown site for the church in April 1867 from Baptiste Courtade for $50. Shortly thereafter, the community erected a fifty foot by thirty foot frame structure, which provided a meeting place for both Baptist and Methodist congregations. As historians Patricia Prather and Jane Monday have observed, this church "became the first institution in Huntsville owned collectively by ex-slaves and thus subject to their control." The church was a religious house of worship, a community center, and a school building for children and adults alike.

Original members of the church included Joshua Houston, Strother Green, William and Mary Baines, John Clark, Harriet Hendricks, Eliza and Solomon Jones, Kizziah Lacy, Jeff Lockhart, Sara Smithers, and others. These individuals helped organize a school at the site, and early teachers included Jacob Cozier, Mollie Flood, Texana Snow, Lizzie Stone, and O.A. Todd.

The African American congregations using the Union Church grew quickly, and soon the various denominations represented there decided to build their own places of worship. In January 1869, the decision was made to split into three separate congregations. The Methodist Episcopal members stayed at the original Union Church, but renamed the site St. James Methodist Episcopal Church. The congregation at this location continued to grow during the remainder of the century, and in 1894 a new wooden sanctuary was constructed to accommodate local members.

By the 1930s, a number of other black Methodist churches had developed in Huntsville. The Great Depression took its toll on these institutions, however, and in 1939 the decision was made to merge the Methodist Protestant, South Methodist Episcopal, and St. James Methodist Episcopal churches into a single denomination simply called Methodist. These change allowed the various groups to work together to support the spiritual needs of the community in new and exciting ways.

Later, during Reverend Ezekiel Taylor's pastorate at St. James, the church decided to replace its historic, but deteriorating, structure with a new building. Construction began on the church’s long-time site in September 1961, and the new St. James Methodist Church hosted its first worship service on July 26, 1964 with Reverend E.T. Albudy as pastor.

To this day, St. James remains on the location of the original Union Church, and for this reason the official State of Texas Historical Marker for Huntsville’s first African American church is situated there. The marker was unveiled on February 21, 1982 with a host of local dignitaries in attendance. Since that time, however, St. James has curtailed its operations. The congregation has dwindled and the building is currently not in use.

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As part of their Southern States Recording Trip in 1939, John A. Lomax and his wife Ruby Terrill Lomax attempted to expand their catalog of folk music by incorporating a wider variety of genres, and the contributions of Huntsville resident Grace Crawford Longino reflect that effort. The Lomaxes also acknowledged Mrs. Longino and her husband for their assistance in scheduling appointments and locating musicians in the Walker County area.

The wife of William Longino, a professor at Sam Houston State Teachers College, Grace was an accomplished local figure in her own right. For her recording session with the Lomaxes, she recalled songs that she had sung with her parents, brothers, and sisters as a child living in North and East Texas. Her family had "delighted in gathering at night and on Sunday afternoon to sing." They sang while doing chores as a family and Grace also had a brother who worked as a cowboy and shared songs he learned on the job.

When the Lomaxes visited the Longino home at 1721 Avenue I (no longer present), Grace was two weeks shy of her 38th birthday. The Lomaxes' field notes indicate that she shared seven songs but only six appear to have been catalogued with "The Filly" missing from the collection. She sang sentimental songs and a children's song, among others. Most of these tunes lasted only a minute or two, with "Green Grass Growing all Around" the longest at three and a half minutes. They varied significantly from the style and content of those shared by the convicted felons at the nearby Huntsville and Goree prisons whom the Lomaxes recorded on the same visit.

After her husband died in 1947 while traveling in Mexico with his students, Grace took the position of grounds superintendent at the urging of college president Harmon Lowman. A master gardner and former head of the Huntsville Garden Club, Grace was designated "Campus Beautician" and established a small greenhouse and nursery to grow plants for her landscaping improvements.

In the early 1950s, she became director of the Sam Houston Memorial Park and Museum, which had fallen into disrepair since its opening for the Texas Centennial in 1936. She enlisted the help of an inmate labor detail from the nearby prison to carry out the work and she also successfully pursued state funding for preservation and museum expansion. Later she began the tradition of hosting a birthday party honoring Sam Houston's wife Margaret, whom she portrayed in period costume, to raise awareness of Margaret's contributions to Texas history. Grace served as museum director until the early 1970s and died in 2002.

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During the twentieth century, Minnie Fisher Cunningham (1882-1964) worked as a leading reformer on women’s issues, including voting rights and equal pay. Born near New Waverly, Texas in southern Walker County, Minnie was raised by her parents, Horatio and Sallie (Abercrombie) Fisher, to be an educated, politically-minded young woman. She earned her state teaching certificate at age sixteen, but chose to further her education at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. In 1901, she became the first woman in Texas to earn her Graduate of Pharmacy degree. She began and ultimately ended her pharmacy career in Huntsville’s downtown drug store, however, where she earned less than half of what her male counterparts made. It was this experience that she credited with “making a suffragette out of me,” and once she married B.J. Cunningham in 1902, her medical career came to an end.

Cunningham first became politically active in local volunteer organizations in Galveston, where she and her husband relocated in 1907. She began her speaking and lobbying career, while volunteering for the Women’s Health Protective Association (WHPA) and helped to found Galveston’s Equal Suffrage Association (GESA). As a delegate of GESA, she participated in the creation of the Texas Woman Suffrage Association (TWSA) and helped link it to the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA). In 1915, she was elected president of TWSA, soon called the Texas Equal Suffrage Association (TESA), and it was in that role that she worked for the passage of a state bill that would allow women to vote in political primaries. Although the bill ultimately failed to pass in 1917, Cunningham and her organization used their considerable influence to help impeach the sitting governor of Texas, James E. Ferguson, for corruption. When Ferguson decided to run for governor again, despite being banned from doing so, Cunningham negotiated a deal with State Representative Charles Metcalfe and Governor William Hobby to allow women to vote in the state's primary, promising that the female vote would support Hobby in his bid to remain governor.

Despite her success during the election of 1918, Cunningham and her forces were unable to secure the passage of an amendment to the Texas Constitution that would have allowed women to vote in the state. Cunningham did not give in, however, but instead worked diligently for the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. She was part of the team that convinced Woodrow Wilson to openly support it during World War I, and she actively lobbied the Texas Legislature for immediate ratification in 1919. Following the successful campaign to secure women’s voting rights through the Nineteenth Amendment, Cunningham became the first executive secretary of the League of Women Voters and became active in progressive political causes, joining the Democratic Women’s Advisory Committee at the suggestion of Eleanor Roosevelt. She later became the first woman to run for the Senate in Texas, and though she lost in the primary, she later became the first woman to run for governor as well. In that latter race, she came in second out of nine candidates having been defeated by the incumbent, Coke Stevenson in the primary. She worked tirelessly for the implementation of President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal policies and was late in life a supporter of John F. Kennedy. She died in her hometown in 1964 of heart failure.

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Huntsville’s Andrew Female College was founded in 1852 and chartered by the Texas Conference of Methodist Churches on February 7, 1853. Its creation mirrored that of Austin College, a men’s institution in Huntsville that had admitted its first class in the fall of 1850. The women’s college was named after the controversial Methodist bishop, James Osgood Andrew, whose ownership of African American slaves had caused a split in the Methodist Episcopal Church and helped to birth a new Southern branch of that denomination. Despite Andrew’s divisive reputation with abolitionists in the North, he was popular in Texas, and the residents of Huntsville were proud to name a school after him.

Andrew Female College held its first five-month session in May 1853 at Huntsville’s old “Brick Academy” under the leadership of its first president, James M. Follansbee. At a time when there were few educational opportunities for women, enrollment was high and the college soon outgrew the cramped quarters at its initial site. Local residents supported the school, however, and contributed funds for a larger, two-story building that was completed in 1855. Eighty students, primarily from Walker County and surrounding areas, were enrolled at the college in 1856-1857.

The college offered young women what was considered an appropriate education for the mid-nineteenth century. Courses focused on classical literature, languages, art, music, and domestic life. The school also hosted annual concerts and exhibitions, sponsored by the Music and Art departments. These events garnered widespread attention in Walker County, and brought guests from miles around to see the work that the young women of Texas were producing.

Led by a bevy of prominent Huntsvillians -- including Charles Keenan, Daniel Baker, Henderson Yoakum, and Thomas Ball -- the board of trustees at Andrew Female College ensured that the school operated without interruption throughout the Civil War. Despite this success, Huntsville’s disastrous 1867 yellow fever epidemic claimed the lives of the college president, several members of the faculty, and a number of the students. Although the school limped on for another twelve years after the epidemic, it never fully recovered. The opening of Sam Houston Normal Institute in Huntsville in 1879 finally caused Andrew Female College to close in 1880. The school’s property was conveyed to the city of Huntsville and reopened later that year as the community's first public school. The structure eventually was relocated and became a public school for African American children.

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On September 16, 1844, the First Baptist Church of Huntsville, Texas was organized in the Brick Academy building by Rev. Z.N. Morrell, Thomas Horsely, and Rev. Benjamin Fry. In 1851, the church's early congregation met at the Dean School House, while the first church building was constructed on two lots purchased at the corner of 13th Street and Avenue J. During the church's early years, baptism's were held at a creek near the Dean House School, as well as at a baptismal pool near Sam Houston's residence. Dr. Rufus C. Burleson, President of Baylor University, preached a sermon at the dedication ceremony of the First Baptist Church. General Sam Houston and his wife Margaret were present at the dedication service and remained church members until General Houston became the Governor of Texas in 1859. The early congregation included Benjamin Fry, John Lehr, Prisilla [Tresilla] Lehr, Thomas G. Birdwell, Tercy [Tirzah] Birdwell, Sarah Horsely, and O.H.P. Hill.

In 1891, the congregation paid to construct a new frame building for worship services. Dr. Rufus C. Burleson again preached the dedication sermon for the church building, remarking on the rich history of the church's first forty years in Huntsville. By 1896, the First Baptist Church was thriving, increasing its membership to 144.

In 1924, the second building was demolished, and a new four-story red brick building with long white pillars was constructed in its place. On the second floor,

the church's sanctuary featured stained-glass windows. On January 24, 1954, tragedy struck when the First Baptist Church caught fire, killing a young college student named James E.V. Davis. The congregation rushed to save church records, nursery furniture, the organ, as well as some of the pews. While the fourth church building was constructed, the congregation met in the local high school auditorium. On December 11, 1955, Rev. Gordon Clinard preached the dedication sermon for the new church building.

In 1985, construction was completed on the church's new Family Life Center, which featured a full-size indoor basketball court with second floor walking track, racketball court, exercise room, locker rooms, kitchen and parlor. The Family Life Center is located on the northwest corner of 13th Street and Avenue J. On February 18, 1990, a church steeple with a cross on top was added to the building and dedicated to the memory of Willis and Beulahree Floyd. The First Baptist Church and its majestic building and steeple are landmarks of Huntsville and Walker County.

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In 1866, a group of East Texas plantation owners working with the Polish merchant, Meyer Levy, formed the Waverly Emigration Society. This enterprising new group hoped to bring European farmers to the Waverly area in order to replace the recently-freed African-American population that had once performed the region's agricultural labor. Hundreds of Polish immigrants soon entered the Waverly community and took up work on local farms. These laborers found a religious leader in Rev. Felix Orzechowski, who established New Waverly’s St. Joseph's Catholic Church in 1869.

St. Joseph’s was the first Catholic Church in Walker County, and it served the many Polish families who settled in the area in the 1870s. Church tradition often sustained the immigrants until they adjusted to life in their new country. Services were held outdoors or in private homes during Father Orzechowski's pastorate. Soon after leaving the parish in 1876, he returned to Poland and was imprisoned by ruling Russian officials for advocating democratic ideals.

In 1877, the congregation that Orzechowski had established purchased two lots from the Texas Land Company to serve as the site for a church building. Construction of St. Joseph's initial building was overseen by Rev. Victor Linicki. The first church building was a box-frame house, approximately 20' x 30' in diameter. As St. Joseph's congregation increased, church leaders felt that a larger church building was needed. In 1892, under the leadership of Rev. Theodore Jaron, construction of a new church building began. The new church was designed and constructed by Tom Lavandorski. Mrs. Catherine Ripkowski contributed the lumber for the new building, which was cut from trees on the land that is now St. Joseph/Elmina Cemetery. The building was approximately 40'x 68' in diameter, with 12' walls. The church was dedicated on the Feast of Corpus Christi in 1897.

By 1902, St. Joseph's congregation had grown to 125 families. During this time, Rev. Thomas Aloysius Bily encouraged the congregation to construct a new church building that would accommodate the growing congregation. The church purchased the remainder of the block as well as a lot across the street. The new church was designed by the architect L.S. Green who wanted to create a grand cathedral in a traditional Gothic-style. Once constructed, the church featured large stained-glass windows, which let in the morning sun. The cruciform edifice measured 120' by 60' in diameter, and with two sections of pews, the church could seat 300 people. The new church building was dedicated on December 16, 1906. Construction lasted three years and cost $13,000.

In 1984 and 1985, St. Joseph's went through a $250,000 renovation, which replaced the tower window, eaves' crossing, and confessional. The church also purchased a new organ and nativity using donations from the community. St. Joseph's has grown considerably over the years, from 40 families in the 1860s to over 400 families today. Throughout its long and vibrant history, St. Joseph's has served a diverse parish consisting of many cultures and backgrounds. The congregation's spirit for ministry is what truly makes St. Joseph's great.

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To collect authentic, undocumented folk music, John A. Lomax and his son Alan specifically sought out "made up" songs, ones that had been created and developed by everyday people. In 1934, while searching for the local and secular music of African Americans, the Lomaxes stopped at the Smither farm, or Smithers Plantation as they called it, near the Trinity River in Walker County. There, they asked farm manager Tollie R. Gaines for his help with their project. Gaines called for one of the farm's renters known as One-Eyed Charley, but he was reluctant to sing any songs other than spirituals, even when Gaines encouraged him to share ones that the farm workers made up while plowing fields or chopping wood.

Later that evening, the Lomaxes set up their recording equipment in a building that served as a church and school-house, and several African Americans joined them. Alan attempted to prompt them by asking if anyone knew "Stagolee" and though a man named Blue said he did, he offered to share a song he had just made up that day. Blue's "Po' Farmer," Alan later wrote, was about the "tribulations of the Negro renter in the South." Once Blue stopped singing, he continued speaking and directed his comments to the President, explaining "you just don't know how bad they're treating us folks down here" and urging Roosevelt to come to Texas and do "something for us poor folks." The Lomaxes played Blue's recording back and Alan later recalled that "there was immense joy in this group because they felt they had communicated their problem to the big world."

Alan was particularly moved by Blue's comments and the crowd's response. He later wrote that his experience at the Smither farm "totally changed my life. I saw what I had to do. My job was to try and get as much of these views, these feelings, this unheard majority onto the center of the stage."

Others also performed that evening. A boy about 13 known as Butter Boy and described by the Lomaxes as a "runt" sang "Raise a Ruckus Tonight," which the Lomaxes believe originated as a minstrel song, and "Old Aunt Dinah," a fast-paced chant. A woman named Bat wearing pig tails and a straw hat sang alone before returning with three other women who formed a quartet that was, according to Alan, "far superior to any other group we had heard." They recorded three songs and were accompanied by Monroe Bowdry, a 61-year-old farmer whose vocals are prominently featured on "Tall Angels at the Bar."

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In his pursuit of folk music, John A. Lomax visited penitentiaries throughout the South specifically to document the music of African Americans that, because of racial segregation and the isolation of prison life, remained pure or relativity free of the influence of whites or popular music. In 1934, Lomax and his son Alan visited the Goree State Farm, the state prison for women just outside Huntsville, and recorded four songs by a "group of Negro women prisoners."

John returned to Goree in 1939, this time joined by his wife Ruby Terrill Lomax on their Southern States Recording Trip. There they recorded several female inmates, some in groups and others singing individually. One of the soloists, Hattie Ellis, had gained a following after appearing on WBAP's weekly radio show, "Thirty Minutes Behind the Walls," which featured inmates performing from the nearby men's prison known as the Walls Unit. According to Marcus V. Heath, Goree's general manager, Ellis once received 3,000 fan letters in one week because of her performances on WBAP.

Ellis, a native Texan in her mid-20s serving a 30-year sentence for murder, was accompanied on guitar by "Cowboy" Jack Ramsey, a white inmate, when she performed a bluesy version of "I Ain't Got Nobody" and on "Desert Blues," which she told the Lomax team that she had written.

Doris McMurray, another soloist, sang "Shine On" and "This Little o' Mine," two songs that she had learned from her grandmother in Waco. McMurray and Ellis joined other inmate vocalists on the spiritual "It's a Blessin' Jes' to Call My Savior's Name" and on the prison song "Cap'n Don't 'low No Truckin' -round in Here." Decades later, a writer for "Texas Monthly" magazine wondered if Ellis might also have written that song about "Captain" Heath, Goree's strict manager whose wife served as the prison matron.

At the time, the Lomaxes noted that "Hattie's singing is fast becoming 'throaty' as she strives to imitate the professional 'blues' singers." The next year Ellis received a conditional parole, but was returned to prison in 1955 for assaulting someone in New York, a violation of her parole.

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Gibbs Brothers and Company is reputedly the oldest continuously operating family business in Texas that still resides on its original site. The business was established by Thomas Gibbs and Gardner Coffin in 1841 on the Huntsville town square. The pair purchased the lot on which they built their store from Huntsville's first resident Pleasant Gray.

After Coffin died in 1844, Thomas convinced his brother Sandford St. John Gibbs, who had left Texas after their father's death, to return to Huntsville and go into business with him. In 1847, Sandford paid $500 for a half interest in the company, which he and Thomas named T. & S. Gibbs. The brothers replaced the original log cabin that had served as a mercantile store with a new two-story, wood-frame building.

In the 1870s, Thomas moved away from Huntsville for health reasons, and Sandford bought his brother's interest in the business, renaming it the S. Gibbs Company. In the back of the store, Sandford kept a large, iron safe, and local businessmen and planters began to deposit their money there for safekeeping. Sensing an opportunity to develop a financial enterprise, Sandford soon opened a bank in the rear of the store.

After Sandford's death in 1886, his widow Sallie took over the business. A native of North Carolina and graduate of the Greensboro College for Young Ladies, Sallie had the old wood-frame business razed and replaced with a new brick structure.

With her son's assistance, Sallie is credited with developing the Gibbs business from a minor mercantile operation to a leading financial, real estate, and timber enterprise. In 1890, she worked with her eldest son and several influential Huntsville business leaders to organize Gibbs National Bank, which became First National Bank in Huntsville in 1922. Sallie retired from the business in 1917 and died a year later.

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Marian “Mamie” Rather Powell (May 2, 1881- August 25, 1974) was an active supporter of suffrage and education in Huntsville. Born to Rawley Samuel Rather and Mary Caroline Henry Rather, children of some of the earliest settlers in Huntsville, “Mamie” was raised by parents who valued education. Like both her father and mother before her, she attended college, graduating from the University of Texas at Austin in 1902. After graduation, she returned to Huntsville to teach at Huntsville High School from 1907 to 1909 and was appointed by the Governor to the staff of Sam Houston Normal Institute in 1909, where she taught in both the History and Math departments. While on staff, she composed the college song, at the request of President Harry Estill, for the school’s Homecoming in 1910. Her teaching career came to an end in 1913, when she resigned in order to marry Benjamin “Ben” Harrison Powell III.

Throughout her life, Mamie Powell was active in organizations that fought for women, education, and the needy. She was the chairwoman of Walker County's women's suffrage association prior to the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment and subsequently became the first woman to serve as a member of the Huntsville School Board. She was also involved in the League of Women Voters, the World War Food Conservation and Red Cross Committees.

In 1920, Powell and her husband moved to Austin, where she became involved in many historical societies, including the American History Club, the Thankful Hubbard Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, the Colonial Dames of America, and the Texas Fine Arts Association. She was involved with both the Episcopal and Methodist churches throughout her life.

Mamie and Judge Ben Powell used their resources to promote philanthropy and community service throughout their lives. When their second son, Rawley Rather Powell died at the age of 5 after a tonsillectomy, they set aside a wildwood sanctuary at the edge of Oakwood Cemetery. It is made up of nearly 4 acres of land donated by the Powell family and includes the Rawley Rather Powell Memorial Park. In memory of their son, they also had a full size bronze replica of Danish sculptor Bertel Thorwaldsen's "The Christus" or “The Comforting Christ” commissioned and placed in the Wildwood Sanctuary at their son’s grave. Due to the weathering of the bronze throughout the past century, locals refer to the statue as “The Black Jesus.” In 1953, the Powells also donated “The Song Window” to Sam Houston State University. This beautiful window was located in the Old Main Building, until both were destroyed in a fire on February 12, 1982.

Mamie Powell was widowed in 1960 and continued to live in her home, “Montwalk,” until her death in 1974. She was buried alongside her family in Oakwood Cemetery in Huntsville.

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Anna Hardwicke Pennybacker (1861-1938) was an accomplished suffragette, educator, author, and advocate for progressive causes. Born in Petersburg, Virginia, she attended Sam Houston Normal Institute and graduated in 1880 as part of its first class. She married classmate Percy V. Pennybacker in 1884, but their marriage proved to be a short one. He died in 1899, leaving her free to follow her passion for advocacy. Prior to his death, they worked together as educators and she wrote and published A New History of Texas in 1888. This textbook, known as “the Pennybacker text” was the standard for teaching Texas history for the next forty years.

Pennybacker started her career in advocacy in the Texas club movement, founding one of the first Texas women’s clubs, the Tyler Woman’s Club in 1894. From 1901 to 1903 she led the Texas Federation of Women, with which she raised $3,500 for women’s scholarships at the University of Texas and successfully lobbied for the creation of a women’s dormitory there. She is also responsible for the creation of many libraries in Texas, a legacy of a travelling library and art collection that she funded. Pennybacker held many positions with the General Federation of Women's Clubs, culminating in two terms as president, from 1911-1912 and 1912-1916.

From 1919 to 1920, Pennybacker served as an associate member of the Democratic National Committee where she began a close and influential relationship with Eleanor Roosevelt. She worked as an unofficial analyst for the Roosevelt presidential campaigns, helping to gauge political sentiments in the Southwest. Pennybacker and Mrs. Roosevelt worked together on a number of issues including the advancement of women, world peace, and the furthering of the progressive reforms of the Democratic party. As a frequent guest of the White House, Pennybacker convinced both the first lady and her husband, President Franklin Roosevelt, to speak on behalf of her causes. In fact, President Roosevelt helped to fundraise at the Chautauqua Institutes’ Women’s Club in 1936, and Eleanor Roosevelt became the first and only First Lady to speak at Sam Houston State University in 1937.

Anna Hardwicke Pennybacker remained active throughout her entire life working for the causes that she felt passionate about. She was a frequent lecturer around the country and became the first woman in history to give the commencement address to the city of Houston’s combined high schools. She had such a prolific and diverse record of contributions, from Food Administration of Texas in World War I to acting as a special correspondent to the League of Nations, that when she died in her home in Austin on February 4, 1938, she was respected throughout the country for her work in social causes.

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John A. Lomax first met Henry Truvillion, an African American in his mid-40s, in the company town of Wiergate in Newton County. Truvillion worked for the Wier Long Leaf Lumber Company which operated a large logging business in the East Texas timberlands. At that time, Lomax and his son Alan were collecting the songs of workers like miners, woodsmen and railroad laborers. Truvillion explained that because of his faith and duties as a preacher, he was reluctant to share reels or anything but spirituals.

But eventually Truvillion, a railroad track crew supervisor, did share far more than spirituals when the Lomaxes returned to Wiergate in 1934 and several years later when John and his wife Ruby Terrill Lomax visited in 1939 and 1940. In all, the Lomaxes made more than 50 recordings of Truvillion who relied on work songs, specifically calls and hollers, in his position supervising track crews for the Wier rail operations.

The Lomaxes initially recorded Truvillion in Wiergate and then at his home located in Shankleville along Highway 87 about three miles south of Burkeville. In addition to sharing spirituals and sing along songs, Truvillion provided an extensive selection of work songs that he used to direct his team of laborers in a variety of tasks. Different calls guided workers as they straightened or "lined" new track, drove or hammered spikes, or lifted heavy steel rails from a railcar to the ground. John Lomax later wrote that through Truvillion, "we secured the most complete group of railroad songs," adding that Truvillion's "authentic and artistic mastery of this medium has long been recognized by his employers for its economic value."

John Lomax's repeated visits made an impression on Truvillion's young son Jesse who as an adult recalled receiving Christmas gifts from the Lomaxes. He also remembered seeing the fine strands of "black hair" that covered the floor as records were literally were cut in their living room. "Neither man was purely ordinary," Jesse later wrote in the "Journal of Folklife Research" of Lomax and his father, who died in 1948, noting that the men "were indebted to each other" having "served each other well, considering the raw segregation of the years of their sojourn."

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Bernadine Oliphint was born in Huntsville, Texas, in 1933 to Tom and Catherine Bolden Oliphint. She was one of eleven children and was raised in the Smith Hill community. Both of her parents were educated and taught school prior to the birth of their children. Her mother retired to care for their family, and her father acted as a school principal for several black community schools.

Oliphint’s family belonged to the First Baptist Church in Huntsville, and both her father and mother valued music. After graduating high school at Samuel Walker Houston High School, she attended Texas Southern University with plans to become a teacher. After earning her bachelors, she taught music at Grambling University in northern Indiana. Needing to further her education in order to teach performance, and drawn to the stage herself, she continued her schooling, earning her masters from Indiana University.

As a young woman, Oliphint traveled throughout Europe and the United States performing as an operatic soprano. Throughout her career, she spoke of her love of Mozart and Strauss, who she felt wrote especially well for soprano voices. While in German and Italy, she worked in some of the major opera houses of the mid-century, and was even featured on a German postage stamp. She marveled at Germany’s appreciation for black opera singers at a time when, in America, the civil rights movement had taken hold. "They figured that, if you made it out of America as an African-American, you must be really something," Oliphant said.

While working throughout Europe, she received many grants to continue her studies there, including the Martha Baird Rockefeller Grant and the Fulbright Fellowship for study in Germany and the G. Verdi Plaque from the Verdi Foundation. She also testified before the U.S. Senate sub-committee hearings on the reauthorization of the Arts and Humanities Act, representing the State of Indiana’s opera houses and singers.

Oliphint never married, and instead devoted herself to performing and teaching. Having taught at Grambling, Fisk, and Indiana University, she retired from Texas Southern University in 2005. While at TSU, she directed the opera workshop and taught many students who went on to work as professional singers, including students who went on to study at Yale and Juilliard. Throughout her career, she also taught and served to preserve historic black music, especially spirituals.

Bernadine Oliphint is now professor emeritus of voice and opera at TSU. When asked how she would spend her retirement, she responded, "I'll do what I darn well please, when I darn well please to do it."

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Shortly after the town of Huntsville was incorporated, founder Pleasant Gray donated five acres of land for the creation of a school. The new institution began operations as early as 1845 and received a charter on April 11, 1846. Originally, the school offered education to both boys and girls and was known as the Huntsville Academy. Citizens in Huntsville raised the funds to build what was later described as a schoolhouse “built elegantly of red brick.” After serving as a coed school for several years, the Huntsville Male Institute broke away in either 1847 or 1848 (sources differ). From then on, they were separately known as Huntsville Male Academy and Huntsville Female Academy. When Austin College replaced Huntsville Male Institute, the remaining female school became know as the Female Academy or simply, the Brick Academy. It had an average enrollment of approximately 70 young women.

William Viser, Thomas Gibbs, M. Barrett, F. L. Hatch, and M. C. Rogers served as trustees of the school, and many famous residents of Huntsville worked for the institution. Dr. Samuel McKinney, who later became the first President of Austin College, taught at the Brick Academy as did the missionary-turned author Melinda Rankin. While in Huntsville, Rankin completed her famous book, Texas in 1850, in which she spoke very highly of Huntsville and the surrounding county.

According to records, the community occasionally used the sturdy school building for other purposes. The organizational meeting of the First Baptist Church took place in the Brick Academy, and the congregation appears to have used it to hold regular church services until a new sanctuary was built.

The Brick Academy served the community of Huntsville as a school for young women only for a short time. In 1853, the Methodist Church chartered Andrew Female Academy, and the older school quickly fell into disuse.

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Best known as the author of the first "History of Texas," Henderson Yoakum was an accomplished soldier, attorney, and politician. Born in 1810 in Claiborne County, Tennessee, Yoakum graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. He resigned his commission as lieutenant in 1833 to practice law in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, where he was later elected mayor. He then returned to military service, taking up arms in 1836 as a captain of the mounted militia near the Sabine River, and as a colonel in the Tennessee infantry during the Cherokee War in 1838. The following year, he won a post in the Tennessee Senate, where he served until 1845. During his time in the legislature, he supported the annexation of Texas.

A close friend of General Sam Houston's, Yoakum migrated to Texas in 1845 and settled about three miles outside Huntsville. He built a home on Four Notch Road at its intersection with U.S. Highway 190, and helped secure the county seat for Huntsville in 1846. After joining the military once more to serve in the Mexican War, Yoakum returned to Huntsville and played a vital role in every facet of community life.

In 1849, he wrote the charter for Austin College and then served as the school's first librarian. He also taught law there and sat on the board of trustees. In addition, Yoakum helped to found Andrew Female College and acted as director of the Texas state penitentiary in 1849. His service led to his appointment as the Worshipful Father of the Forrest Masonic Lodge No. 19 in 1850.

At home in Shepherd's Valley in 1855, Yoakum wrote his two-volume "History of Texas from its First Settlement in 1685 to its Annexation to the United States in 1846."

The following year, Yoakum traveled to Houston and died there in November 1856.

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St. Stephen's Church, located at 5019 Sam Houston Avenue, is the sixth oldest church in the Episcopal Diocese of Texas. In 1854, the Rev. Charles Gillette reported that St. Stephen's had ten communicants. The church's early congregations met in the Cumberland Presbyterian Church building, the Odd Fellows Hall, and the upper room of the county courthouse. On July 26, 1870, a lot was purchased for $150 from M.L. Thorton, and a new building was planned.

St. Stephen's first vestry consisted of Dr. I.P. Nixon, Dr. Thomas W. Markham, J.S. Markham, and Joe Bates. In 1871, Rev. Jeremiah Ward became St. Stephen's first rector. On March 23, 1873, Bishop Alexander Gregg consecrated St. Stephen's first church building. Ward was compelled to resign as rector when the congregation refused to support a married priest.

In 1904, a new church building was constructed on 13th Street and Avenue L. During this period of time, St. Stephen's experienced frequent setbacks. First, the church went without a rector for many years, relying on lay readers to lead services. Church membership decreased from 39 communicants and 20 Sunday School pupils in 1907, to only 13 members in 1922. Making matters worse, in March 1931 a fire broke out at the church destroying the building. Between 1936 and 1940, the vestry made plans to construct a new church building. The lot on 13th Street was sold to the Continental Oil Company, and a new lot was purchased on the corner of 15th Street and Avenue M. On November 28, 1948, construction was completed on the new church building; Bishop Simon Quin preached the dedication sermon.

The community of Walker County rallied to support the struggling church and congregation by raising funds to purchase furnishings. Throughout the 1940s, membership increased as the church found consistent clergy leadership. In 1959, the congregation moved to the corner of 16th Street and Avenue J. In 1973, St. Stephen's was re-admitted to Parish status. In forty years, membership increased from 10 to 211 communicants. By 1980, membership increased to over 400 people.

St. Stephen's Episcopal Church is one of the oldest churches in Huntsville, Texas. Throughout its long history, St. Stephen's has endured many hardships. However, the church has maintained an active presence in the community, and demonstrated a fortitude to overcome adversity.

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The First Christian Church, located at 19th Street and Avenue R, has provided excellent service to the Walker County community for over 150 years.

Writing in 1934, Mrs. W.A. Leigh recalled that early services of the First Christian Church were held at the county courthouse and in private homes. Mrs. Leigh noted that when her father, J.W. Bush, moved to Huntsville in December 1853, he sought out a number of individuals with similar religious beliefs as his own.

"Mrs. [G.W.] Banton, her son, Mr. Joab H. Banton, her daughter, Mrs. Wiliam Birdwell, and Mr. Birdwell, were his best friends. In Mrs. Banton's parlor, every Sunday morning, these would meet with her family: Mr. and Mrs. Jergins, Sr., Col. and Mrs [George W.] Grant, Mr. and Mrs [J.W.] Bush and children, and his sister, Miss Fannie Henley Bush. Mr. Bush would conduct the service. The communion, the hymns, the prayers, the Bible reading and the brief talk were impressive. The hymns, "How Firm a Foundation," "Jesus, Lover of My Soul," "Amazing Grace, How Sweet the Sound," and "God Moves in a Mysterious Way," made a deep impression, never to be forgotten" (Park, pp.66-67).

The First Christian Church was formally organized by Rev. Joseph Addison and Randolph Clark. On January 1, 1863, Rev. Benton Sweeney became the first resident pastor of the Huntsville Church. Early church leaders included elders J. Lyle Smith and J.W. Bush, Deacons J.F. Mason and William Birdwell.

According to Deed Records, on April 22, 1871 the congregation of the First Christian Church purchased the lot and building at the northwest corner of 11th Street and Avenue J. The building was purchased from the Cumberland Presbyterian congregation. Rev. Edwin Curtis Boynton served as rector on three separate occasions starting in 1899 and ending in 1949.

By 1901, the building was demolished and a new church was constructed in its place. In 1931, a new red brick church building was constructed in the same location. Finally in 1953, a new sanctuary at the northwest intersection of 19th Street and Avenue R was constructed; this building has served the congregation of the First Christian Church ever since. The First Christian Church has provided religious leadership in Walker County since before the Civil War. Its most lasting legacy is its dedication to helping the community find ways to bring the Word of God into their lives.

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During their field recording sessions in fall 1940, John A. and Ruby T. Lomax visited the Lufkin area collecting songs that ranged from gospel music to blues to popular 19th century tunes.

In Keltys, a lumber mill town then just outside of Lufkin, instead of documenting work songs they had found in other company towns and camps, the Lomaxes recorded the Angelina Four singing harmonies and spiritual music. Four African American men comprising the quartet worked for the Angelina County Lumber Company in Keltys but according to the Lomaxes' catalogued materials, the only song likely associated with their work was "Angelina Longleaf Pine," which was identified as a "singing commercial." Three of the quartet lived in the "Negro quarters," an area on the east side of Keltys for African American employees. The fourth member of the quartet, Alphonso H. Charlton, worked at the lumber mill but lived just outside Keltys.

In addition to the commercial, the Angelina Four recorded 14 other songs, including "Pullman Passenger Train," "When I Was a Little Boy," and several spirituals. On six of the quartet's gospel recordings, Bess Lomax, John's daughter who was then in her late teens, is listed as a "recordist" indicating she may have joined her father and stepmother for part of their 1940 tour.

Within the city limits of Lufkin, the Lomaxes recorded three songs performed by Lillie Cochran Stegall, a 70-year-old white woman who was married to a former teacher and justice of the peace. Stegall shared popular songs from the 19th century, including the minstrel piece, "Mary's Gone wid de Coon."

While in Lufkin, they also recorded a dozen songs with a professional musician identified as Finous "Flat Foot" Rockmore who likely spelled his last name as "Roquemore." Rockmore played guitar as he performed blues, folk music and at least one work song listed as "Levee Work Song" in the Lomaxes' records. Rockmore, who noted in 1942 that he played in "a string band about" Lufkin, also recorded two monologues which reflect John Lomax's interest in documenting oral history, an effort he emphasized while working for the Federal Writers' Project four years earlier.

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Hillary Mercer Crabb (1804-1876) served as one of the first judges in Walker County. He was born in Columbia County, Georgia. At 18, he was commissioned as a first lieutenant in the Georgia militia, and in 1830 he moved his family to Mexico, where they settled in the Sabine District. Crabb later joined the Texas militia and fought in the Battle of Nacogdoches in 1832.

Crabb served as the first probate judge when Walker County was incorporated in 1846. He would later serve as chief justice from 1848 to 1852. In 1852, Crabb was elected to fill the term of Rep. F.L. Hatch in the Texas legislature. Like many other early Huntsvillians, Crabb was a member of Forrest Masonic Lodge No. 19.

On February 11, 1835, Hillary Crabb was awarded a land grant for his service in the Texas War for Independence. He built Rex Hill, named after his home in Georgia, along the "Big Road" that connected Huntsville and Madisonville. A small community, known as Crabb's Prairie, grew up around the homestead, which was located about seven miles northwest of Huntsville. At its height in 1936, the community boasted three businesses, two schools, and a church.

Like Sam Houston, Crabb opposed the secession movement in Texas. After the outbreak of the Civil War, he moved to Lavaca County and later to Madison County, where he served as sheriff from November 1871 to November 1872. His influence as a prominent landowner, church leader, Mason, and public servant had a dramatic impact on the early growth of the area. He died on September 8, 1876, and is buried in the Madisonville Cemetery.

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The son of Jesse and Fannie Baker, Wendell Harold Baker (1922-2013) played a crucial role in the civil rights movement in Walker County. His parents provided him with a first rate public education, and he graduated with honors from Samuel Walker Houston High School in 1939. Frustrated that he could not attend the local white college in his hometown due to racial segregation, Baker took advantage of a scholarship offer at Austin’s Samuel Huston College, where he pursued a science degree. At the same time, Baker also joined the college orchestra and choir, and traveled around the nation with a sextet that raised money for the college and recruited new students. Due to the draft, however, Baker was forced to delay his schooling in 1945, while he served in the segregated Army Medical Corps in the Pacific Theater of World War II.

Upon returning to the United States, Baker enrolled at Texas State University for Negroes during the fall of 1947. He quickly completed an undergraduate degree in chemistry and returned to Huntsville to teach physical science, biology, and physics at his alma mater, Samuel Walker Houston High School. Baker became famous in local circles for his rigorous teaching style and tireless devotion to his students. Although racial segregation was strictly enforced in Huntsville, Baker often challenged the discriminatory practices and inadequate funding of his school by negotiating with his white peers for science equipment, textbooks, and other supplies. As historian Bernadette Pruitt has shown, “Baker’s determination propelled a number of his students into math and science as career choices.”

In 1962, Mance Park, the former high school football coach turned Superintendent of Huntsville’s schools, fired Baker for building a new brick home on his family’s property, which was located near several white subdivisions. As a result of his dismissal, Baker was forced to find employment outside the local community. He ultimately secured a job at the Goodyear Tire Company in Beaumont, becoming the first African American professional within the company to win promotion to chemical engineer. Baker worked for Goodyear for twenty-two years, and the financial support the job provided enabled him to launch his career of activism back home in Walker County.

Beginning in 1963, Baker played a leading role in the African American campaigns for voting rights, school desegregation, and integration of public accommodations in his local community. He formed the Walker County Voters League and, with his wife Augusta, paid the poll taxes for dozens of African Americans to vote. In fact, the group defeated the racist Walker County Sheriff, Floyd Farris, before demanding additional reforms from the white establishment.

In time, Baker emerged as a key supporter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and its affiliated group Huntsville Action for Youth (HA-YOU), backing their efforts to desegregate the downtown business district in 1965. And, perhaps most importantly, Baker pushed for public school desegregation in both the Huntsville Independent School District and at Sam Houston State Teachers College. Baker’s own daughter, Pam, endured a painful year as she desegregated the 12th grade at Huntsville High School, and Baker personally pushed John Patrick, a young man who graduated with honors at Sam Houston High School, to become the first African American student to attend Sam Houston State Teachers College in 1964. Thus, Baker devoted his life and career to wiping out racial segregation in an effort to secure greater liberty and equality for his community.

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Felder Jones Sr. (1913-1995) was an important local business leader in Huntsville, Texas. After the death of his mother and father, he lived with his aunt, Emily Williams Hill, in the nearby Galilee community. Jones attended and completed his elementary education at Samuel Walker Houston Industrial and Training School and later became a member of the high school’s basketball team, which earned a state championship in 1932-1933.

Jones held a variety of jobs after graduation, starting off as a stock boy for Grand Leader Dry Goods and later taking a job as a shoe-shine boy at Sublett Shoe Shop. While attending an industrial and trade school in Chicago, Illinois, Jones learned how to stitch and repair shoes. After returning to Huntsville, he opened his own store, Jones Shoe Shop, in 1946. His new store was one of the few black-owned business in Huntsville, and it remained in business at 1210 Avenue M until Jones' retirement in 1981.

Jones supported students at Samuel Walker Houston High School and offered young men part time jobs enabling them to finish school. When returning veterans of World War II could not find work, he, along with other African-American businessmen, including funeral director A.L. Cox, county agent K.H. Malone Sr., and dry cleaner Calvin Lewis, provided jobs for them. Jones Shoe Shop also sponsored Samuel Walker Houston High School athletics and repaired shoes for the football team throughout the years.

Jones not only helped local African-American schools, but he also participated in community service activities, serving as a deacon of First Missionary Baptist church and as chairman of the Board of Deacons. He also served as a Democratic Precinct Chairman of Precinct 2 for twelve years, and emphasized the importance of local voting.

On December 24, 1939, Jones married Iantha Archie and they later had three children: Felder Jones Jr., Mary Katherine Jones Solan, and Nelson Early Jones. All of the children graduated from Samuel Walker Houston High School. Felder Jones Sr. died September 11, 1995 and is buried in Galilee Cemetery.

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In 1933 and 1934, folklorist John A. Lomax and his son Alan visited the Darrington prison farm to record the music of African American convicts. At Darrington, they captured not only the vocals of inmates who sang as they worked in rhythm, but also the powerful words of the prison chaplain as he delivered a sermon.

The Lomaxes recorded a prisoner identified as Lightnin' Washington, so named by his fellow inmates because he could "think faster than the Warden." Washington was under 30 and serving a second prison term. He led other convicts in several work songs, including "Good God Almighty," "Hammer Ring," and "Long John" in which members of the group kept time with ax-cutting and clapping. They also joined him by singing and humming on "God Moves on the Water," a song that recalled the Titanic disaster in 1912.

During their visit in spring 1934, the Lomaxes recorded Reverend John L. Griffin, known as "Sin Killer" Griffin, who served as a chaplain to African American inmates in the Texas prison system. Lomax explained to Sin Killer, who had attracted both blacks and whites to Baptist revivals in the late 19th century, that the recordings they made would be deposited in the Library of Congress and a "thousand years from now people can listen to words you will preach."

Griffin delivered his "Man of Calvary" sermon as part of the Easter service he held for Darrington's inmates. Those in attendance were offered bread crumbs and grapefruit juice from the commissary for communion. Griffin's sermon lasted an hour, but the Lomaxes were unable to record it in full as the disks they used only held seven minutes of sound per side and had to be turned and changed frequently. They did record the congregation singing "Wasn't That a Mighty Storm" about the hurricane that decimated Galveston more than 30 years earlier. Though Griffin is credited in most records as the singer, it is likely that the prison's unnamed songleader was actually the featured vocalist.

In 1939, John returned to Darrington with his wife Ruby T. Lomax but found that the inmates did not offer the same type of authentic music he had found earlier. Instead, Ruby noted, there were few singers and those willing to perform were "not interested in old songs or the old manner of singing."

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Searching for authentic folk music, John A. Lomax made multiple trips to the Sugar Land area in the 1930s. First in 1933 and 1934, he and his son Alan visited the Central State correctional facility to document work songs of African American inmates. Then in 1939 he returned with wife Ruby Terrill Lomax and captured religious and traditional songs performed by a Mexican-American family.

The Lomaxes's visits to Central State -- once in 1933 and twice in 1934 -- resulted in the successful collection of more than 30 songs by African American inmates. In addition, the folklorists established relationships with two of their most prolific resources, James "Iron Head" Baker and Moses "Clear Rock" Platt.

Baker told the Lomaxes that he was a habitual offender who had been convicted six times. He explained that while at another prison he earned the nickname "Iron Head" when the branches of an oak tree fell on him and he just continued working. Baker had no serious conduct violations at Central and served as a trusty. In 1936, John appealed to Governor James Allred who granted Baker a furlough and "Iron Head" joined John on a tour of southern towns searching for worker songs at prisons, camps and docks. "Iron Head" received additional furloughs even after his travel with John ended, but he eventually returned to prison for committing burglaries.

Moses Platt, or "Mose" as the Lomaxes recorded his name, told John that he was nicknamed "Clear Rock" because he had thrown rocks at a group of men chasing him, apparently with such force and precision that three of the men were killed. During his time at Central State, "Clear Rock" shared ballads, works songs and several stories with the Lomaxes and later, after he was released, John and his wife Ruby located him in Taylor and recorded him in a room at the Blazilmar Hotel in 1939.

John and Ruby also returned to Central State in 1939, but Ruby wrote that the "trip was fruitless" because the "old crowd had scattered, the new boys sang fewer of the old songs and in performance imitated radio artists." They did not even set up the equipment.

During that trip, however, they did successfully record the Lopez family at their home not far from the prison. They had heard them perform an Easter play at Our Lady of Guadalupe in Houston, but their equipment was not working correctly so they made arrangements to visit them at their home near Sugar Land.

Gonzalo and Juana Lopez, several of their children, and other family members sang the story of Dimas, the Good Thief, who died with Jesus. They attributed the words and music to a teacher in Coahuila, Mexico, who taught it 50 years earlier to Lopez family members who shared it with future generations. Gonzalo also sang three traditional Mexican songs which the Lomaxes recorded in the Lopez's living room.

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While seeking folk songs in African American communities, John A. Lomax and his wife Ruby visited two schools for black students in Newton County in May 1939. They first recorded at Liberty High School in the emancipation community of Liberty and then at Wiergate High School in the lumber town where John had earlier worked with Henry Truvillion.

After spending the night in the town of Newton, John and Ruby were driving north when they saw a group of African American children playing outside "a neat white schoolhouse," as Ruby later described the Liberty School. They stopped and approached the principal, S.D. Ramsey, who assembled students and teachers in the largest of the three classrooms in the main schoolhouse. It had been constructed about 13 years earlier with plans and support from the Rosenwald Fund which helped build schools for African Americans in rural communities in the segregated South. Next to the Liberty School, a school shop and a teacher's home were also built with support from the Rosenwald Fund.

Inside the classroom, the Lomaxes recorded teacher Hattie McGuire and at least 13 students mostly between the ages of 10 and 17, including a shy Margie Mattox, so hesitant to sing in front her classmates that she performed a lullaby inside a coat closest. Other singers included sets of siblings from the Hawthorne, Hunter, Knight and McBride families and Alleyne Simmons, whose father Calloway W. Simmons was a teacher at the school and later became Liberty's principal. The Lomaxes recorded at least ten different songs, which varied from religious ones to children’s play and rhyming songs, some with students clapping along.

After leaving the Liberty School, John and Ruby drove to Wiergate, a sawmill town operated by the Wier Long Leaf Lumber Company, and in the section where black workers lived, they saw a group of girls singing and playing outside the school. They spoke with the girls who said they were playing "Seed Tick" and then talked with the principal, Richard Mack, and his wife Edna who worked as a teacher at the school. The students were called to an assembly and the Lomaxes recorded several children's songs, including ones associated with singing games like "Ring Around the Rosie" as well as the "Seed Tick" song the girls had been singing earlier at recess. Only three students were identified by name and three songs at Wiergate High were simply attributed to groups of "unidentified children."

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In April 1939, John A. Lomax and his wife Ruby Terrill Lomax visited Ramsey State Prison Farm near Otey with the hope of documenting more songs by African American prisoners after disappointing visits to Darrington and Central State where inmates sang very few "old songs." At Ramsey's Camp No. 4, a facility where the Lomaxes noted the "habituals and incorrigibles" were housed, they recorded in a small office. From there, they could see into a dormitory room and observed that "Negro convicts were playing cards, reading, talking, singing blues, listening to an exhorter, sleeping." They also saw one inmate standing "on a barrel for punishment for some minor violation of rules."

The inmates they met included "Columbus Christopher, Alexander Hamilton and George Washington," who sang under the supervision of guards and "behind three sets of locks." They also encountered James "Iron Head" Baker who after being paroled from Central State was again incarcerated for burglary. Having once traveled with John Lomax on an extended furlough, Baker knew the type of music the Lomaxes were seeking and directed his fellow inmates at Ramsey not to sing popular songs. This guidance likely helped the Lomaxes collect the authentic style of singing that they had been unable to find at Darrington and Central State.

The Lomaxes recorded 11 songs at Ramsey including spirituals, work songs and blues performances by individual inmates and groups. Inmate Wallace S. Chain, one of several prisoners John had met over the years using the nickname "Stavin' Chain," provided guitar accompaniment on several songs, and Baker recorded three songs in what appears to be his last session and perhaps his last contact with John Lomax.

After the Lomaxes left Ramsey, inmate Columbus Christopher sent a letter to John, appealing for his assistance. Addressing the letter to "Mr. John A. Low. Mack," he wrote, "If you will get me out I will work for you" or "any of your peoples." In an attempt to encourage John's return, he added that he and other inmates had been practicing religious songs and would have a "greath (sic) number of songs" ready for the Lomaxes. John and Ruby did not return, and Christopher was released the following year.

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