Mary Kate Hunter

Hunter was born at Brushy Creek near Palestine and studied music in Boston, Chicago and Berlin. As a delegate to the Texas Federation of Women's Clubs she helped push for free public libraries, and the Palestine Carnegie Library followed. She chaired the Good Citizenship League and served on the Texas State Library and Historical Commission from 1919 to 1927. Her efforts helped the State Library acquire Adolphus Sterne's diary of East Texas from 1838 to 1851. Her poetry volume Vision appeared in 1936, and Palestine's 1946 centennial was dedicated to her.

What the plaque says

Mary Kate Hunter (November 8, 1866 - April 15, 1945) Born just outside Palestine in 1866 to Nathaniel and Jennie (Beeson) Hunter, Mary Kate Hunter played a significant role in recording, promoting and preserving the history of Palestine and Anderson county. Educated at Palestine Female Academy and Sam Houston Normal Institute, she studied piano with classical musicians across the United States and in Germany, and taught piano to countless Palestine children. As a clubwoman, she was a charter member of the Self-Culture Club in Palestine, organized in 1894; served as a delegate to the first annual meeting of the Texas Federation of Women's Clubs in 1898;organized a local chapter of the Women's National Foundation in 1921 for the preservation and study of local history; and founded and led the Fort Houston chapter of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas. A supporter of voting rights for women, Mary Kate Hunter organized and was first president of the Palestine Equal Suffrage Association, and held statewide office in the Texas Equal Suffrage Association in 1915-16. In addition to her civic duties, Hunter also was a published poet, editor of a local society journal and board member of the Texas State Library. She extensively researched the history of Palestine and Anderson County and conducted dozens of oral history interviews with early area residents. At her death in 1945, she bequeathed her voluminous collection of material to the Palestine Public Library, where it remains in use as an important record of Anderson County history. (2001)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Texas State Railroad Excursion Train — 2.3 mi
  A round trip of about 25 miles of track between the Palestine and Rusk depots through the Piney Woods, on a line built by prison labor and reopened as a tourist railroad in 1976.

More markers nearby

• South Union Missionary Baptist Church — 2.0 mi
• Captain William Kimbro — 2.2 mi
• Judge William Alexander — 2.2 mi
• First Methodist Church of Palestine — 2.2 mi