New Hope Baptist Church

The Handbook of Texas entry for Golden Rule, also called Greer's Neighborhood, covers the church's first decades. A Baptist church was organized there in August 1864. The community was probably Golden Rule by 1890, when the church reorganized as Stephen's Chapel Missionary Baptist Church and for a time met monthly at Golden Rule School. By 1896 the school, in the New Hope district, reported thirty-five White and eighty-nine Black students. The Handbook says that by 1902 the church had moved, and that it eventually became part of New Hope, two miles to the south.

What the plaque says

New Hope Baptist Church This fellowship was started as a Baptist Church of Christ in 1864. Members reorganized at Greer's Neighborhood, now Golden Rule community (2 mi. NW), in 1890 as Stephen's Chapel Missionary Baptist Church. The new name honored Stephen Kelley, a church elder who had died the previous year. A sanctuary was built in 1902 on the banks of Black Branch, a stream near New Hope Cemetery (3/4 mi. S) used for baptismal services. The church was renamed New Hope Baptist in 1916 and the congregation moved to the present location the following year. (1980)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Governor Hogg Shrine — 9.5 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.
• Tyler State Park — 14 mi
  A 985-acre park eight miles north of Tyler, built by the Civilian Conservation Corps from 1935 to 1941 around a 64-acre spring-fed lake, with more than 13 miles of trails.
• Camp Ford Historic Park — 20 mi
  A free county park north of Tyler on the site of the largest Confederate prison camp west of the Mississippi, with a kiosk, an interpretive trail and a historical society museum downtown.
• Goodman-LeGrand House and Museum — 22 mi
  A Tyler house begun in 1859 as four rooms, enlarged by the Goodman family over 73 years, and left to the city in 1939 with its furnishings, in a garden that fills a city block.

More markers nearby

• First Election in Wood County — 2.2 mi
• Caddo Indian Communities in Wood County — 2.9 mi
• William Jesse McDonald — 4.0 mi
• Sarah Rosalie Patten Buchanan — 4.0 mi