Portrait of Sophia Veal and Martin McDonald

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This portrait features the couple who donated land for the Hopewell School in Cedar Creek, a needed resource during segregation.

Martin McDonald (1848–1912) was born into slavery in Tennessee and was sold, with his parents, to the owner of a plantation in Bastrop. After emancipation, Martin oversaw work teams of horses, oxen, and mules. He also herded sheep and transported cotton freight from Bastrop to San Antonio. Sophia Veal (1858–1935) was born to sharecroppers in Louisiana and moved to Bastrop with her family. 

Martin and Sophia were married in 1874 and bought their first parcel of land in Cedar Creek, a rural area in Bastrop County, in 1876. Martin and Sophia became advocates of self-reliance and economic independence, and they encouraged and supported other emancipated people in and around Cedar Creek. Together they produced cotton, corn, hay, and vegetables and raised livestock on their land. They would regularly travel to Austin to sell products from their farm and earned enough to provide for their 14 children and to buy more land. By 1906 they owned more than 1,100 acres.

The Texas State Constitution of 1876 established the racial segregation of public education in the state. Of the little education funding that existed, most went to white schools. Oftentimes Black schools in rural areas were located in dilapidated buildings or in churches or private homes, and many communities had no schools at all. Although Martin never attended school himself, Sophia could read and write, and they both recognized the importance of education in making a better life.

In 1912 Julius Rosenwald (1862–1932), a Jewish philanthropist and the president of Sears, Roebuck and Company, and Booker T. Washington (1856–1915), founder of the Tuskegee Institute, created a program to try and address the racial education gap in the South. Over the next 25 years they helped finance the construction and operation of nearly 5,000 schools across 15 Southern states, including Texas. Texas was a major beneficiary of the Rosenwald program, receiving funds that led to the creation of over 400 schools as well as teacher’s homes and industrial shops, in 82 different counties.

Martin McDonald died in 1912. A few years later Sophia Veal donated land from his estate for the construction of a church and Rosenwald school, the Hopewell School. One of five Rosenwald schools built in Bastrop County, Hopewell School opened in 1922 and served the town of Cedar Creek until the 1950s. The donation provided educational opportunities for family and neighbors. Martin and Sophia’s daughter Artelia McDonald Brown was the school’s first teacher, and her daughter Sophia Williams attended as a student. Later, as former students, teachers, and their descendants became aware of the school’s historical significance, they rallied the community in an effort to save the building. Restoration work began in 2016, and today the former schoolhouse serves as a community center.

This portrait, owned by Sophia and Elroy Williams, is in the A Better Life for Their Children exhibit. Sophia was a descendant of Martin McDonald and Sophia Veal. Their home, the former school house, and neighboring church, all remain on the land they inherited. The portrait serves as a reminder of Martin and Sophia's legacy, one that provided for the education and uplift of their family and community in Cedar Creek.