Island Community
Madison County, TX
Status: Located
Year Established: Unknown
Council of Governments: BVCOG
Public History: There are no current descriptions related to Island Community in the public record. If you are aware of any sources that we may have missed please share them with us.
Community History: Island Community is in the southeast corner of Madison County. An article about the Nauls family N Bar and Z6 Ranch in the Island Community states: “The area became known as the Island Community decades ago when flooding from the Bedias Creek and the Trinity River, which is about a mile east of N Bar and Z6 ranch, floods and creates a peninsula of land.”
The Hopewell Baptist Church is in the community, and the adjacent Hopewell Cemetery is also known as Hopewell-Island Cemetery and Island Community Cemetery. The Hopewell school was a two-teacher Rosenwald school, funded in the 1925-26 funding year.
The Nauls family ranch was recognized by the Texas Department of Agriculture’s Family Land Heritage program. The program honors farms and ranches which have been in continuous agricultural production for 100 years or more by the same family. “[Floyd Nauls Jr.] is the fifth generation of his family to farm and ranch on some of the original land granted in 1903 to his descendents, Imogene and Henry Barrett, who were ex-slaves. “My dad [Floyd Nauls Sr.] inherited 15 acres from his grandparents and from that point he started purchasing other relatives land that they wanted to sell. Then from that, he just kept expanding and expanding on family land,” Nauls said.
Cemetery: Hopewell Cemetery, Hopewell-Island Cemetery, Island Community Cemetery
Church: Hopewell Baptist Church