This locality was settled about 1849 by pioneers from Alabama, Florida, and Georgia, and cotton and corn plantations thrived there. A school opened in the 1850s but closed during the Civil War. A site on the centrally situated Manning Land Grant became a public burial ground, and the earliest documented grave is that of J.W. Darden, who died in 1869. Little Hope Baptist Church was organized in the community in August 1872 by Freestone County missionary the Rev. J.M. Gambrell, who served as the first pastor, with R.B. Anderson as church clerk. In 1875 a schoolhouse was built near the burial ground on the Manning Grant and was called St. Elmo, probably for a popular 19th century novel. Baptists held services in the schoolhouse until 1886, then adopted New Hope as the church name, bought a 6-acre tract that included the cemetery and school grounds, and built a church. The present sanctuary, which replaced that original building, was remodeled in 1954. St. Elmo Cemetery Association administers the cemetery, which in 1974 contained about 850 graves.