According to local tradition, the community of Hiner was established mainly through the efforts of James J. Barnett, who settled in Parker County in 1857. Area family legends and accounts tell of Barnett helping newcomers with transportation and temporary housing. Wade Chapel Methodist Church, built on land donated by Mary W. Wade adjacent to the Hiner Cemetery about 1870, served as a school and community center, and the Reverend James Hiner was its first minister. The cemetery, with graves dating to 1872, contains the graves of at least seven veterans of the American Civil War.