Townsite of Tarrant TX7330

Eldridge Hopkins, for whose family Hopkins County was named in 1846, donated this site for the county seat. Named for Gen. Edward H. Tarrant (1796-1858), Texas Ranger and Mexican War Veteran, Tarrant Post Office was established in March 1847. A two-story frame courthouse was begun in 1851, but lack of funds delayed completion for two years.

Tarrant quickly grew into a thriving frontier town with a tannery, steam mill, blacksmith shop, brick kiln, and hotel. After 1851, it had a Masonic Lodge and school. During the 1850s, a newspaper, the "Texas Star," began publication, and a Methodist College opened.

Encircled by creeks, the town was difficult to reach in bad weather. The inconvenience of travel to Tarrant led Capt. Thomas M. Tolman in 1868 to transfer county records to Sulphur Springs, where Federal troops under his command were stationed after the Civil War to enforce Reconstruction laws. Despite local protests, County Government remained there until civilian rule was restored in 1870. The return to Tarrant was brief, because the State Legislature in 1870 named Sulphur Springs as permanent county seat. Soon Tarrant began to decline. A rural community and old cemetery now mark the site of the first Hopkins County Seat.

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Wesley Chapel Methodist Church TX11644

This congregation was established at the forks of Richland and Ash Creeks in 1877 by the Rev. Austin Lockhart, an itinerant Methodist minister of the West Texas Conference. Initial services were held in a nearby log schoolhouse and later in a church building near the present-day Pelham Cemetery. New sanctuaries were erected at this site in 1911 and in 1934. Wesley Chapel Methodist Church is an important local institution with a tradition of supporting a Sunday school, choir, and numerous youth and elderly outreach programs and activities for members of the rural Pelham community.

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Woods Chapel Baptist Church TX5899

On April 28, 1901, a group of worshipers gathered together in a brush arbor to organize a church congregation. Led by the Rev. Washington Lafayette Wood, a missionary who had arrived in Tarrant County from Alabama in 1891, the members immediately began the task of building a sanctuary on land donated by Sam McMurray. A small white frame structure was dedicated at this site in November 1901 and the church was named for the Rev. Mr. Wood.

Worship services were conducted on both Saturdays and Sundays until 1910. Baptismal services were held in the nearby Rush and Village Creeks until 1912, when the congregation began to use a stock tank on the property of church member Will Moore.

In 1928 the congregation called its first full-time Pastor, the Rev. C.W. Walton. Additional property was purchased in 1937, and an educational building was erected. The Rev. Mr. Walton continued to lead the congregation through the difficult years of the Depression, serving as Pastor until his death in 1941.

The church continued to grow over the years. A new sanctuary, built in 1948, is still in use as a chapel for special services.

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Bald Eagle's Nest PA92
A Delaware Indian village named for a noted Munsee chief Woapalanne or "Bald Eagle." Located at union of Spring and Bald Eagle Creeks. From here raids on the frontier were made in Revolutionary days.

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Canoe Place PA1
Indians traveling from the Allegheny to the West Branch by way of Portage-Driftwood Creeks, carried their canoes over the divide -- a distance of 23 miles -- to the other "Canoe Place," near present Emporium Junction.

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Tulpehocken Path PA1848
Along this ridge, between Deep and Pine Creeks, ran the Tulpehocken Path. It connected Shickellamy's capital of Shamokin, now Sunbury, with the Tulpehocken Valley. Travelled by Indian ambassadors and Christian missionaries.

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Union Canal PA1870
This canal was operated from 1828-1884. It connected the Susquehanna at Middletown with the Schuylkill at Reading, following the Swatara and Tulpehocken Creeks. Much coal and iron ore were transported. Course of canal was just west of old mill race.

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A County Older Than the State–Autauga County AL24
Created in 1818 by an act of Alabama Territorial Legislature. Autauga Indians lived on the creek from which the county takes its name. Autaugas were members of the Alibamo tribe. They sent many warriors to resist Andrew Jackson's invasion in the Creek War. This county was part of the territory ceded by the Creeks in the Treaty of Ft. Jackson in 1814. Prattville has been the county seat since 1868. Earlier seats include: Jackson's Mill, Washington, Kingston.

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A County Older Than the State–Blount County AL44
Created Feb. 7, 1818 by Alabama Territorial Legislature from lands ceded by the Creek Indian Nation. Named for the Tennessee Governor W. G. Blount, who sent militia under Andrew Jackson to punish the Creeks for Fort Mims massacre. Jackson fought and won the Creek War. Creeks gave up half of their lands in Treaty of Ft. Jackson, 1814. Some of Jackson's men were first settlers of Blount. County seat moved here in 1889.

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Abner McGehee AL57
Born Feb. 17, 1779 in Prince Edward County, VA, nephew of John Scott, founder of Alabama Town which in 1819 joined New Philadelphia to become Montgomery. Reared in the Broad River area of northeast Georgia, he became an affluent planter, tanner and general trader. When Creeks lost much of their land in the 1814 Treaty of Ft. Jackson, "Alabama Fever," the lure of much very fertile land, caused many Broad River residents, among them Abner McGehee, to emigrate to Alabama. He bought a huge plantation in the area now known as Hope Hull, named for a Methodist preacher who brought his family into the Church in 1809. McGehee was a very prosperous farmer and entrepreneur. In 1833 he built Planter's Hotel on Court Square and rebuilt it when it burned. He was a promoter of Alabama railroads, including the 76-mile line from Montgomery to West Point, GA, one of the first in the state when its construction began in 1836. Instrumental in starting the iron industry in Alabama, in 1830 he hired ironmonger Daniel Hillman to erect a forge in Roupes Valley, later known as Tannehill. A devout Methodist, he founded the Alabama Bible Society in 1851. His philanthropies were unexcelled in Alabama in his lifetime. He died on Feb. 19, 1855 and he is buried here.

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