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Population:
church congregation only
History in a Pecan Shell
The "community" dates from the 1850s and the Handbook of Texas
states that the first school was taught (by fifteen-year-old Emily
Smith) in 1857.
Little Hope never had a post office and the only population figures
date to the late thirties when the population was a mere 10 persons.
The name, according to legend, comes from the belief that the Missionary
Baptist Church organized here in 1881 had "little hope" of lasting
a year.
The history of the community is in fact, the history of the church.
The first meeting was near "The Murphy graveyard." The church later
shared a two-story building with a Woodmen of the World lodge
which disbanded in the early 1920s.
Little Hope was included in the Common Ridge school district,
Throughout the 1960s, many houses in the area were abandoned, while
the congregation of the church increased to over 100. The church inherited
the bell from the Common Ridge school, erecting a belfry to hold it.
The church was still active when it received a historical marker in
the 1980s. |
Little Hope,
Texas Forum
Subject:
Info on Little Hope, Wood Co. Texas
Just a comment about your article on the Church and the Murphy Graveyard
there in Little Hope, Texas. The cemetery mentioned was actually the
"New Murphy" cemetery. This land was donated to the church for a location
to build the new community church, and cemetery. This land was given
by my G-Grandfather, William Patrick Murphy. The "Old Murphy" cemetery
was on land near the dam site of the old Stinson Pond that was sold
off to new comers to the area such as the Blundell's, Daniels, Robbins
and the Burnett's. The "Old Murphy" cemetery was never used again
for public use and was lost forever with the building of the Quitman-Gilmer
highway CR-154 in the early 1940's. I believe that the plots were
graded away in the area on the north side of CR-154, just east of
the dam for the state easement rights. I personally know of about
6-8 Murphy family members that were buried there. It is also thought
to have other members of families living in the area such as the Daniel
family, one of the other early pioneers to this area. The first of
family to be buried in the Old Murphy Cemetery was Mary Emily Murphy
Bagby in 1876 and the last was William Patrick's Mother, Charlotte
nee Brown in December of 1913. She was buried beside her husband,
William Murphy, who was buried abt. August of 1880. William, Charlotte
and their first 3 children, James L., Mary Emily, and Nancy Elizabeth
came to Wood Co. Texas from Fayette Co. Tenn. in the early spring
of 1851. William grew the usual crops of the area, corn and peaches,
but also went on to build one of the first syrup mills in the area
near the banks of Big Sandy. The Murphy land has remained in the family
for many generations from 1851 until 2005 when the last of the Wood
Co. family succumbed. - B. Murphy, March 16, 2008
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