Mt. Hope Cemetery 
Wells Cherokee County, Texas
Cemeteries of Texas Coordinator: Dolores I. Bishop

Information provided by the State of Texas Atlas Site

Location: 
1.5 mi. NW of Wells on CR 2626 (Homer-Alto Road) 

Marker:
Joseph and Mary Bowman were married in Tennessee in the early 1800s. 
They moved their family to Missouri, then Mississippi and finally came to 
Texas with Stephen F. Austin's colony. Joseph, John J. (1807-1890) and 
James H. (1820-1886) Bowman fought in the Texas War for Independence
from Mexico. James H. Bowman never married. In 1875 he offered one hundred
acres of land to the Rev. W. D. Lewis (1819-1898) of the Barsola community to 
come to Mt. Hope community and establish a Methodist church at that location.
Bowman gave adjacent land for a cemetery. The Rev. Mr. Lewis accepted his 
proposal. In November 1875, Mrs. Margaret (Ruby) Hicks, the wife of farmer 
Jasper Hicks and mother of Jess Hicks, died and was the first person to be 
interred on this site. The church was moved to nearby Wells after the railroad came
through in 1886, the year that James H. Bowman was interred in Mt. Hope Cemetery.
Among the early settlers buried here are members of the Bailey, Beasley, Bowman, 
Chapmon, Creekmore, Chandler, Cravens, Dubose, Doyle, Humphrey, Falvey, 
Hillencamp, Hicks, Lees, Lockhart, Luce, Lewis, Ruby, Spinks, Shamess, Stokes,
Sneed, Sessions and Tyra families. Those interred here include area farmers and 
ranchers, teachers, doctors, business and civic leaders, and elected officials including 
former mayors, county commissioners and state legislators. Of the more than 1800 people 
interred on 13.2 acres at the dawn of the 21st century, more than two hundred were veterans 
of major wars and military conflicts, including eight Confederate veterans. The cemetery is a 
memorial to the pioneers of this area. (2000