CADE CHAPEL, TEXAS. Cade Chapel, formerly known as Cade, is a tiny rural community located on Farm Road 246 about seventeen miles south of Corsicana and two miles west of Streetman. The town straddles the borderline of southern Navarro and northern Freestone counties. In the 1870s Anglo-American farmers settled the area and established a cemetery. Ansel and Alice Coleman formally deeded the site to the Missionary Baptist Church in 1883 for the cemetery and construction of a church and Masonic hall. In November 1883 a post office was established and named Cade after pioneer Cade Hayes. Hugh L. Dunagan served as the first postmaster. About 1890 the town had a population of twenty and two general stores. By the late 1890s Cade had grown to 100 residents and included two flour mills and gins, two doctors, a blacksmith, general store, and grocery store. The post office closed in 1907, however, and was moved to nearby Streetman in Freestone County. Residents held church services until 1932, and burials took place at the cemetery until 1946. In 1947 citizens formed the Cade Cemetery Association to preserve the graveyard and surrounding grounds. They also erected a frame chapel. The organization became the Cade Cemetery Memorial Association in 1966. Cade Cemetery received a Texas Historical Marker in 1981, and by the 1980s county maps referred to the area as Cade Chapel. In 2000 Cade Chapel had a population of twenty-five. The cemetery remained the most visible sign of the old community and contained approximately 350 marked graves. The oldest headstone dates back to 1884.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Freestone County Historical Commission, History of Freestone County, Texas (Fairfield, Texas, 1978). Marker Files, Texas Historical Commission, Austin (Cade Cemetery, Freestone County).

Laurie E. Jasinski