Two Historical Markers, an 1860s Cemetery and a Property Row: A Texas Congregation Faces Eviction From Its Chapel

• LaGrone Chapel near Hallsville in Harrison County, Texas, carries two historical markers and has a cemetery dating from the 1860s.
• The congregation left the Methodist denomination in 2021 and became Baptist.
• The Texas Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church says the group has used the property “without agreement or consent” since 2024.
• Members say they pay for maintenance and would keep worshipping elsewhere if evicted.

A small church in East Texas has become the latest battleground over who owns a building when a congregation parts ways with its denomination. KLTV reported that the congregation at LaGrone Chapel, near Hallsville in Harrison County, faces possible eviction after a dispute with the United Methodist Church’s Texas Annual Conference.

The chapel is regarded as a piece of East Texas history. It has two historical markers, and behind it lies a cemetery established in the 1860s, where an American Revolutionary soldier is buried. The congregation separated from the Methodist denomination in 2021 and has since become Baptist. The conference says the group began using the property “without agreement or consent” in 2024, and it has taken legal action to clarify how the property can be used. It describes its aim as “responsible stewardship of this historic space while seeking a fair outcome for all involved.”

Members see it differently. They told KLTV that they pay for the building’s maintenance and running costs. Mary Crane, whose family is buried in the cemetery, said: “It’s important to me that it remain LaGrone Chapel, and we remain here in the original site.” Pastor Chris Crane said: “We want people to know that this for us is not about money. It’s not about land, power or control. It’s about loving God, serving God, serving the community, loving people where they are and giving them a place where they can come and worship.”

Church member Logan Williams said he had seen people praying “that hearts on all sides of this issue would be softened”. If the eviction goes ahead, the congregation says it will move and carry on as a church body.

The property lesson travels well to Jamaica, where many congregations meet in buildings whose titles sit with a denomination, a trust or a mission body rather than with the local church. People who build, repair and pay for a church over decades can still find that the legal owner is someone else. Before a congregation raises money for a new roof, hall or extension, it is worth knowing exactly whose name is on the title and what the governing documents say would happen if the church ever split. Diaspora members who send money home for church projects have every reason to ask the same question.

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