Dement

Dement was a dispersed rural community of black farmers fifteen miles south of Gonzales and about five miles west of U.S. Highway 183 in south central Gonzales County. The settlement had come into existence by about 1880 or 1890. In the 1920s it was a thriving community, with a one-room schoolhouse, Middlefork School, and directly across the street from the school a church, Mount Enon Baptist, which drew worshipers from Terrysville (Gonzales County) and Boyd Ranch (DeWitt County). The community had no store, however, and residents went to Cheapside, about four miles south of Dement, to shop. The school was discontinued sometime after 1936. Services continued to be held at the church until about 1985. Jones Cemetery (also known as Mount Enon Cemetery), about a mile north of the church, was established on land donated by Will Jones. Jennie Belle Covington grew up in Dement in the home of her uncle and aunt, Will and Jane Jones. In 1994 only the cemetery and the ruins of the church remained.