Smyrna Union Church

The ten founders did not share a party. The Handbook counts three Populists, a Socialist, an Independent and five Democrats, among them a newspaperman, a county clerk, a physician, a teacher and six farmers, and the union was meant to lobby rather than run candidates. Smyrna was its first local, and membership rolls stayed secret until 1914. Farmer-owned warehouses let members hold cotton off the market, with limited success. Mail overwhelmed the Point post office, so headquarters moved to Mineola, later to Fort Worth, and finally to Denver.

What the plaque says

Smyrna Union Church This house of worship is the site of the old school house in which, on Sept. 2, 1902, Farmers Educational and Cooperative Union of America (National Farmers Union) established its first local union. The stated purpose was "To secure equity, establish justice and apply the Golden Rule." The ten men who founded "Farmers Union" were residents of this area. The organization which they here established has become known and respected throughout the agricultural world. This tablet is erected to honor their names and memory. Jesse Adams, W. T. Cochran, Tom Donaldson, Newt Gresham, J. B. Morris, T. J. Pound, O. H. Rhodes, Dr. Lee Seamster, W. S. Sisk, and J. S. Turner; presented by James G. Patton, President, National Farmers Union, Denver, Colorado. (1968)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Audie Murphy / American Cotton Museum — 25 mi
  A Greenville museum of Hunt County's military heroes, including Audie Murphy, and of cotton, which keeps the engine of what it says was the world's largest inland cotton compress.
• No. 1 British Flying Training School Museum — 28 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.

More markers nearby

• Emory Rains — 3.7 mi
• Near Offices of "Rains County Leader" — 3.7 mi
• Rains County — 3.7 mi
• Emory United Methodist Church — 3.8 mi