Menard Chapel Church, School, and Cemetery

A post office called Menard's Mill opened in 1838, and the Menards built a gristmill on Menard Creek in 1844, the Handbook of Texas says. Pierre J. Menard and his cousin Michel B. Menard had worked together in the Kaskaskia fur trade before moving to the Trinity River and running a grist and saw mill. Mount Gilead Baptist Church was organized in 1854 near an old cowboy campground at the Indian Trace, later the Liberty to Nacogdoches road. The commissioners court renamed the town Menard's Chapel in 1862 when it became a voting place.

What the plaque says

Menard Chapel Church, School, and Cemetery Michel B. Menard, signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence, and his brother Pierre J. settled here in 1833. According to local tradition sometime prior to 1854 the Mt. Gileard Baptist Church built a small sanctuary here in Menard Chapel, a farm and ranch community which developed along Menard Creek. Shortly after the Civil War ended Mrs. E. O. Rhoden donated 2 acres here for church and school purposes. The Baptist congregation constructed a new church building which for many decades served as a house of worship as well as a schoolhouse for the Menard Chapel School. Early teacher A. A. Duff also served as pastor. Another early teacher, V. A. Collins, went on to serve Polk County as Texas state senator. The school was discontinued in 1935 when it was consolidated with the Livingston Independent School district. The cemetery was established with the burial of Rutha Nicholas in 1876. Church and cemetery acreage was set aside in a deed executed by Eli and Unity Rhoden in 1902. A new sanctuary, built here in the 1920s, served as a place of worship until 1983. The cemetery is maintained with perpetual care funds by the Menard Chapel Cemetery Committee. Veterans of the Civil War, World War I, and World War II are buried here. (1993)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Big Thicket National Preserve — 24 mi
  Start at the Kountze visitor center, where rangers sort the preserve's scattered units for you, and learn why Congress made this 1974 string of pearls the country's first national preserve.

More markers nearby

• Major Henry W. Augustine — 4.3 mi
• Capt. Hardy B. Purvis — 9.1 mi
• Confederate Service of Alabama and Coushatta Indians — 9.3 mi
• Lt. Col. James M. Parker Jr. — 11 mi