Betts Chapel

Lee County, TX

Status: Located – Needs More Research

Year Established: 1800s

Council of Governments: CAPCOG

Public History: Betts Chapel, a small black farming community, is on a county road known as old Highway 44 six miles northwest of Giddings in southwestern Lee County. Abram Betts, the founder, came from Virginia to Fayette County after emancipation and subsequently settled in Lee County. The town was named for his son Wright. Betts Chapel had a community store, Missionary Baptist and Methodist churches, and a one-teacher school. The school held classes in the Methodist church on Abram Betts’s land; this church may have been named Betts Chapel. In 1898 the school had thirty-three students. The Rosenwald Fund provided for a new school some years later, officially named Willy Branch No. 21 but commonly known as Betts Chapel School. The only trace of the community in 1990 was the Betts Chapel cemetery, which was partially covered by plants in 1973 and had around forty-five graves.

Community History: “From TSHA’s Handbook of Texas: “”Betts Chapel, a small black farming community, is on a county road known as old Highway 44 six miles northwest of Giddings in southwestern Lee County. Abram Betts, the founder, came from Virginia to Fayette County after emancipation and subsequently settled in Lee County. The town was named for his son Wright. Betts Chapel had a community store, Missionary Baptist and Methodist churches, and a one-teacher school. The school held classes in the Methodist church on Abram Betts’s land; this church may have been named Betts Chapel. In 1898 the school had thirty-three students. The Rosenwald Fund provided for a new school some years later, officially named Willy Branch No. 21 but commonly known as Betts Chapel School. The only trace of the community in 1990 was the Betts Chapel cemetery, which was partially covered by plants in 1973 and had around forty-five graves.””

The cemetery, known to the Texas Historical Commission as Betts Family Cemetery, remains wooded. In 2022, the owner of the parcel was the “”Betts Chappel Cemetary Association””. One grave is that of community founder Abram Betts, who lived to be 112 years old according to his death certificate. Another grave is that of Rev. Anthony Anderson, pastor of Betts Chapel AME Church. He was born in Alabama in 1843 and died in 1922. One visible grave is that of Thomas M Betts. During his service in World War I, Army Private Betts developed an illness or serious health threat which ultimately resulted in his death in 1919.”

Cemetery: Betts Family Cemetery