Farris Chapel

Farris Chapel is a small, unincorporated rural community in southwestern Walker County, Texas, located on Farm-to-Market Road 1791, approximately two miles north of the Montgomery County line and about 12 miles southwest of Huntsville, the county seat.
The area, situated near West Sandy Creek, was among the earliest settled parts of the county, with roots dating to 1835 when Hezekiah Farris (also spelled Faris, 1797–1859) and his brother William, originally from Franklin County, Tennessee, arrived along with other migrants from the same state. Hezekiah Farris, a veteran of the Battle of San Jacinto during the Texas Revolution (where he served under Captain James Gillaspie and possibly aided in capturing General Santa Anna), received a land grant in February 1838 from the Republic of  Texas, establishing his homestead along Sandy Creek.
The community developed around the Farris Chapel Methodist Church, founded in 1841 by Hezekiah and William Farris on the north bank of West Sandy Creek, initially serving multiple denominations including Methodists, Baptists, and Presbyterians. This church building also functioned as the area's first schoolhouse.
Following the Civil War, the Baptists constructed their own separate building, while the Methodists continued using the original structure until replacing it with a new one in 1880.
The community, sometimes associated with the nearby historical settlement of Goshen (named after Goshen, Tennessee, and located just north of the junction of FM 3179 and 1791), grew modestly as an agricultural area with scattered farms.
By 1904, the broader area had around 100 residents, a general store (sometimes called Farris Chapel Store), and a sawmill; however, by 1914, the population had declined to about 25. In the 1930s, it featured dispersed farm dwellings, a single business, a school, and the church.
A post office operated in the vicinity under the name Goshen from 1854 to 1866, and another called Hutcheson from 1895 to 1916.
Farris Chapel itself is not recorded as having had its own post office, and it remains unincorporated with no formal population estimates historically available. A notable historical structure linked to the community is the Roberts-Farris Cabin, built in the mid-1840s by Hezekiah Farris as a gift for his stepson, Allen Roberts, using square-hewn logs with half-dovetail notches on Farris's land grant. The cabin, constructed shortly after the church's founding, provided shelter for various residents over the decades, including tenant farmers during the Great Depression. It was relocated multiple times by the Farris family and, after falling into disrepair, was donated in 2001 to the City of Huntsville, where it was restored by local groups and Sam Houston State University students. Now situated on Huntsville's downtown square at University Avenue and 11th Street (the site of Pleasant Gray's original trading post), it serves as a shop for local crafts.
The Farris Chapel Methodist Church at 1651 FM 1791 remains active today, hosting services and community events, and is recognized as a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark (designated in 1965), though the physical marker was reported missing as of March 2020.
An associated Farris Cemetery, located in Huntsville, continues to be used and maintained by the Farris Cemetery Association, serving as a burial ground for community members with ties to the area's early settlers.
The community persists as a rural, existing locality within Walker County's piney woods landscape, though by the 1980s-1990s, maps showed few remaining structures at the core site, reflecting its dispersed and agrarian nature.


Farris Chapel is on Farm Road 1791 two miles north of the Montgomery county line in southwestern Walker County. Among the earliest settlers in the area were Hezekiah Farris and his brother William, former residents of Franklin County, Tennessee, who arrived in 1835 and were soon joined by other Tennesseans. In 1841 Farris and his neighbors built a church on the north bank of West Sandy Creek. Services were conducted by Methodists, Baptists, and Presbyterians in the building. However, after the Civil War the Baptists built their own building, and residents of the area supported a school based in the Methodist church. In 1880 a new church building was erected to replace the old structure. In 1990 Farris Chapel Methodist Church remained a place of worship for the community, and the cemetery was still used.  TSHA

Texas State Historical Association
https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/farris-chapel-tx

TX Almanac
https://www.texasalmanac.com/places/farris-chapel

Find a Grave
https://www.findagrave.com/cemetery/3559/farris-cemetery

East Texas History
https://easttexashistory.org/items/show/7