Earle's Chapel Methodist Church

Settlement of the Earle's Chapel community began several years before the organization of Cherokee County. W. J. Ragsdale (1811-1884), a veteran of the Texas War for Independence, and his wife Patsy McAdams (1816-1898) had settled on Prairie Branch (Mill Creek) in 1838. Elijah Earle (1804-1880), his wife Nancy Blanchett (1811-1852) and their children migrated here from Alabama in early 1846. They cleared a farm and Elijah built a mill on Prairie Branch. As the community grew, Elijah Earle and his second wife, Mary Elizabeth Jarratt Tatum (1824-1904), saw the need for a school and church. They donated four acres of land, and in 1859 a log building was erected at this site. It burned in 1875 and was immediately rebuilt. That same year, the Earle's Chapel Society, with twenty-five charter members, was officially organized by the Rev. E. P. Rogers of the East Texas Conference of the Methodist Church. A new church building was constructed in 1889 by church members T. J. Skeleton and Robert Tatum. Although damaged in a 1987 tornado, the building was restored, and after more than a century of service continues to serve the community, including descendants of pioneer families.

Earle's Chapel Methodist Church is a historical marker in Jacksonville, Cherokee County, dedicated in 1990. It is one of 112 historical markers documented in Cherokee County in the Texas Historical Commission Atlas, among 245 historic sites cataloged across the county.

The site sits at 31.9350, -95.3424 near Jacksonville. The nearest cataloged historic site is Earle's Chapel Cemetery (historical marker), about under a tenth of a mile away. Others within a short drive include Earles Chapel, Reynolds Family Plot, and Ragsdale Cemetery.

This record corresponds to Texas Historical Commission Atlas #5073006763. Use the map below for its exact position and turn-by-turn directions.