Edmund A. Wynne

The Pictorial History of Van Zandt County describes the Wynne community that grew around Edmund Wynne. The settlement was once called Clear Springs and was divided between the Mathis family at one end and the Wynne family from below the hill to the old oak tree marker. The Smiths, Bowmans and Shamlins were early settlers. When Taylor Shamlin's wife died young, the Wynne and Knox families helped with cooking and chores while his oldest daughter, Lovie, mothered the children. The old school came down in 1992, and a community park was built on the site in 1994.

What the plaque says

Edmund A. Wynne The Wynne community of Canton is one of the oldest African American communities in Texas. Its namesake, Edmund Arnold Wynne, was born June 18, 1850, in Cherokee County to a family of slaves. His family moved to the Big Rock area of Van Zandt County in 1866. By 1869, just four years after emancipation, his father, Henry Wynne, managed to buy 100 acres of land. In July 1871, Edmund married Martha Shaw, and joined the state militia to stop the general lawlessness that had developed in opposition to reconstruction. Edmund purchased his own land in 1876 and in 1879, he sold for one dollar an acre of this land to the Colored Methodist Church of Clear Springs, the name for the African American community which had formed in the Big Rock area. He and his father also established clear Springs School for African American children. By 1882, Edmund sold his land at Big Rock and moved to Canton where he purchased another farm. After Martha died in 1883, Edmund married Ella Lawley. As Edmund Wynne became more successful in farming, he supported what would be known as the Wynne community, aiding neighbors in becoming self-sufficient and even in raising money to build a mill. His own success and involvement also attracted other former slaves and struggling families to move to the area. In 1888 he sold for one dollar land for the site of the Promise Land Colored Methodist Church, used for church and school. He actively participated in the education of the black community, helping keep the respected educator Rufus Hardin as a teacher at one of the schools until 1896. One of the schools that Edmund sold land to in 1902 eventually became renamed Wynne school. In 1896, Ella died and Edmund married Ann Preisley Matthews that year. After a lifetime of community involvement, Edmund Wynne died on April 1, 1931. (2015)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Purtis Creek State Park — 16 mi
  A 1,582-acre park straddling the Henderson and Van Zandt county line, built around a 355-acre lake with no-wake fishing, borrowed tackle, a 4.1-mile hike-and-bike trail and a nature path.
• Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center — 24 mi
  A Texas Parks and Wildlife hatchery and visitor center in Athens where visitors can borrow tackle and fish a stocked pond, watch native species in gallery tanks and ride a tram around the hatchery.
• No. 1 British Flying Training School Museum — 26 mi
  A free museum at Terrell's airport where about 2,200 RAF cadets learned to fly between 1941 and 1945, with logbooks, uniforms, letters and original training aircraft.
• Governor Hogg Shrine — 29 mi
  Quitman's 27-acre city park, once a state historical park, where two houses tied to James Stephen Hogg's marriage stand beside an arboretum, a nature walk and the grounds of the Old Settlers Reunion.

More markers nearby

• First Monday Trades Day — steps away
• Dixie Hotel — steps away
• Cadwell Walton Raines — steps away
• Oran Milo Roberts — 0.2 mi