LEVERETT'S CHAPEL, TEXAS

Rusk County, East Texas

32° 18' 45" N, 94° 55' 22" W (32.3125, -94.922778)
State Highway 42
4 miles from Overton
7 miles S of Kilgore
NW of Henderson the county seat
Population: 450 (2000)

Leverett's Chapel, Texas Area Hotels:
Henderson Hotels | Kilgore Hotels

History in a Pecan Shell

Prior to settlement, the community had been the site of a substantial Indian village. Mrs. E.A. Leverett and family arrived here in the 1850s from Savannah, Georgia. Building a log house, it wasn't until 1937 when the family built a Colonial style mansion. The family had brought slaves, enabling them to reinstate the plantation lifestyle they had left back in Georgia.

Joined by other families, the Leverett family kept their status high by donated land for a combination church and school (sometime prior to 1890). The community quietly went about its business until oil was discovered in 1932 - transforming the place into a boomtown. With the Great Depression already underway, the growth had the town bursting at the seams. The influx of children forced the town to form its own district.

The 1933-34 school year had around 600 students. A separate school for Blacks opened and the two schools remained separate until 1966.

- In time, things settled down and after WWII, people went in search of better-paying jobs. By the late 1980s, the reported population was 450 - which was the same number enumerated for the 2000 census.

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