Post Oak Memory Chapel - Glen Rose, TX
N 32° 16.846 W 097° 48.364
14S E 612431 N 3572182
The former Post Oak school building now serves the old Post Oak community as a chapel, standing off to the side of the Post Oak Cemetery, about 4.6 miles northwest of Glen Rose, TX.
Waymark Code: WM122ZV
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 02/12/2020
Views: 5
A 2007 Texas Historical Marker stands in front of the pedestrian gate to the adjacent cemetery, and it provides some history:
Settled in the years following the Civil War, Post Oak was an agricultural community for most of its history. Its name, derived from trees which are common in Somervell County, was solidified by 1896, when School District No. 2 took the name Post Oak.
The lives of Post Oak residents revolved around a number of community institutions. Three churches have served as spiritual and social establishments: Pleasant Point Missionary Baptist Church, founded in 1893; a Christian church, established in 1895; and a Primitive Baptist church, organized in 1907. Of the three, the Missionary Baptist church played the largest role in Post Oak's development. The Rev. Seaborn J. Foust, who pastored a number of churches in Hood and Somervell Counties, donated adjoining parcels of land that formed the center of Post Oak community with land for Post Oak School (1892), a community church building (1905), and a cemetery (1913), although residents had used the burial ground several years earlier. In 1931, the church and school buildings burned. The church disbanded, but the community rebuilt the schoolhouse the following year. Later, the Mitchell family restored the former school building as a community chapel in memory of Post Oak pioneers.
Most early residents grew cotton, though many diversified by also planting fruit trees. Later, peanuts became a vital crop, and some landowners also raised cattle. By the 1940s, many residents left this rural area and moved to cities. In 1972, however, Texas Utilities began construction of the Comanche Peak Nuclear Power Plant on the settlement's eastern edge, reviving Post Oak's population and ensuring the continued growth of this historic community.
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The cemetery is still active, with over three hundred burials, and the earliest dated burial here belongs to the Rev. Foust's grandson, Jessie O. Foust, who died in 1900. This chapel was the second Post Oak school building, built sturdier of rock in 1932 after the first schoolhouse was consumed by fire, and classes continued here for about another decade until all the rural schools in Somervell County were consolidated with the Glen Rose Schools between 1943 and 1947. The school building became a residence at one point before it was left derelict to stand for about fifty years. In 1992, the Raymond "Brub" Mitchell family and Kate Mitchell Taylor took on the task and expense of converting the old school building into the chapel we have today, and it is used for funerals, weddings, singings, services, reunions, and other gatherings.
Date of Chapel Construction: 1923
Denomination of Chapel or Cemetery (if applicable): None
Active Chapel?: yes
Main Construction Material of Chapel: Rock
Description of Cemetery added in Long Description: yes
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