Bethel (Bethel Community)

Anderson County, TX

Status: Located

Year Established: Unknown

Council of Governments: ETCOG

Public History: There are no current descriptions related to Bethel in the public record. If you are aware of any sources that we may have missed please share them with us.

Community History: The Bethel community was established by people formerly enslaved on the Benjamin W. Jackson plantation. Many were tenant farmers after Emancipation before purchasing land. Bethel Baptist Church was established in 1872. A second church, New Bethel, was established in 1916. Jackson Quarters Cemetery dates from the antebellum period and was deeded to the community in 1899.

More about the community’s history and archaeology can be found in Sarah Elizabeth Loftus’s 2015 dissertation “Postemancipation Landscapes and Material Culture: The Bethel Community and the Benjamin W. Jackson Plantation.”

Church: Bethel Baptist Church