Spears Chapel

Spears Chapel is on Farm Road 2991 three miles east of Burkeville and seventy-three miles northeast of Beaumont in eastern Newton County. It is one of the oldest communities in the county and was the site of Bridge's Mill, an early sawmill. Lumbering was important in the area during the early 1900s, when a handle factory was established west of Spears Chapel at New Columbia. In 1909 J. J. Kerr opened a general store at the Spears Chapel community. The following year he established a post office to serve the approximately thirty families living in the area. The post office, called Kerrdale, was moved in 1911 to New Columbia and was renamed Jack's. A few dwellings still remain at Spears Chapel.