EBENEZER, TEXAS (Jasper County). Ebenezer is a tiny rural community located off Recreational Road 255 about thirteen miles northwest of Jasper in northwestern Jasper County. Settlement began in the area by 1860 when pioneers William P. M. and Mary Ann Dean established a family graveyard. In 1861 they gave land for both the cemetery and the Ebenezer Methodist Church. Circuit-riding ministers used the log building for both Methodist and Baptist congregations. A new building replaced the structure after it burned in the 1890s. In the early 1900s a third building served as both a church and schoolhouse. Highway maps of the 1930s showed the school in Ebenezer that served area farming families. Sometime after this the school closed, and the church was deactivated in 1965. Though Ebenezer was still shown on maps in the 1990s, no population estimates were available in 2000. The Ebenezer Methodist Church and Ebenezer Cemetery received Texas Historical Markers in 1986 and 1987 respectively.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Marker files, Texas Historical Commission, Austin (Ebenezer Methodist Church, Ebenezer Cemetery).

Laurie E. Jasinski