Brooks Chapel

Brooks Chapel, on Farm Road 1251 twelve miles west of Carthage in western Panola County, was settled before the 1850s and named for a church built by early settler John Fletcher Brooks. The community's first school was built around 1878 on land donated by Brooks a mile west of the present Brooks Chapel church. The school was later moved to a site just east of what is now the community center. In 1902 the school burned and was rebuilt next to the Brooks Chapel church. In the mid-1930s the community had a church, a school, a cemetery, and a number of houses. Its school was closed in 1942, and local students were transferred to the Carthage or Beckville school. By the mid-1960s a church, a cemetery, a community center, and a few scattered dwellings remained in the area. During the early 1990s Brooks Chapel was a dispersed community.

Adapted from the official Handbook of Texas, a state encyclopedia developed by the Texas State Historical Association (TSHA). It is an authoritative source of trusted historical records.