Hopewell

Hopewell is four miles north of Tyler and just north of Swan off U.S. Highway 69 in central Smith County. The settlement had been founded by 1887, when a post office was established there with Leonard N. Stell as postmaster. But Hopewell was bypassed by the International-Great Northern Railroad, and in 1891 the post office was transferred to Swan, the railroad town. In 1903 Hopewell had a one-teacher school for fifty Black students and a two-teacher school for eighty-two White students. The Hopewell Baptist Church had been established by 1910, and on October 26 of that year, fifty-six members of the congregation founded the Swan Baptist Church. In the 1920s the local school was a large, two-story, galleried, white frame building with two teachers and seventeen White students. In 1936 Hopewell was served by an elementary school, which that year had forty-five White students and two teachers; the thirty-two local Black children were not enrolled. At that time the community also had a church, two cemeteries, and a small cluster of farms. By 1952 nearby rural schools had been consolidated into the Hopewell Independent School District. Only the church and cemetery and a few scattered dwellings remained at the site in 1960. The school district had been absorbed by the Lindale system. In 1973 Hopewell had a church, two cemeteries, and a cluster of dwellings. It was still shown on the 1981 county highway map.