S.J. Hawkins (1821-1908), whose parents came to Texas from Kentucky in 1846, brought his family to this frontier area in 1876, and his brother F.J. Hawkins and others soon joined him. Their pioneer community centered at this site, where a school was built in 1879. A nearby brush arbor sheltered annual summer camp meetings beginning in 1882. Hawkins Chapel Methodist Church was erected in 1884, and the first burial in the adjacent cemetery took place in 1889. The school closed in 1910 and the church in 1916, but the cemetery remains in use, and descendants of early settlers hold a reunion here each summer.