Good Hope, TX (Lavaca County)

Good Hope is on U.S. Highway 90-A and Farm roads 133, 135 and 137, three miles east of Hallettsville in eastern Lavaca County. The area was originally patented to John Hallett. The community was just north of "the thicket," a name applied locally to the tangled vegetation found along the Lavaca and Navidad riverbottoms, where outlaws hid during the Civil War. The original population was freedmen, and the community remained predominantly black. By 1883 the Good Hope Missionary Baptist Church had become the focal point for community activities. Shortly thereafter, the San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railway connected Eagle Lake and Hallettsville and bisected the community. Residents worked for the railroad, as wood cutters, and as farm and ranch hands. In the 1950s the highway was improved, and travel to Hallettsville became easier. The railroad was removed soon afterwards. In the 1980s the church was still active, but residents conducted most of their business in Hallettsville.