Friendship

The community of Friendship is located about five miles south of Jewett and eight miles northwest of Centerville in northwestern Leon County. This African-American settlement began in the late 1800s. Early residents of the farming community included Isaac and Adelaide Haynes, former slaves, who immigrated to Texas from South Carolina in 1881. The Haynes family helped establish the Friendship Baptist Church and the Church of God and Christ. Around 1919 a landowner named Evans deeded one acre for an African-American cemetery to serve Friendship and other rural settlements in the surrounding territory. Highway maps in the 1930s showed one church, a school, and scattered homes in the region. The school probably closed in the mid-1900s as many residents, especially the younger generation, moved out of Leon County in search of jobs. By the end of the twentieth century only the Baptist church and cemetery remained. No population figures were available in 2000.