Jack & Vinnie Fleeks - 1868
HOPEWELL COMMUNITY HAS RICH HISTORY
By: Suzanne Steed
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Jack and Vinnie
Fleeks of the Hopewell Community, inspired their son Franklin
Columbus Peter Fleeks (born Dec. 1865) to excel.
Franklin Fleeks had instilled in him by his parents, great moral
strength and a desire to learn and to pass on to others his
great desire for learning.
He directed many children as well as his own to attain higher
education and positions of leadership
Fleeks was a college graduate who taught in various Houston
County Schools for 52 years.
He donated land for the Gudeblye School Building in 1908.
Fleeks was a farmer, businessman, beloved educator, had the
first store of the area with a gas pump and was an inspiration
to generations who came after. Franklin Fleeks lived his
entire life in the Hopewell Community and was buried there.
A State of Texas Historical Marker honors Franklin Columbus
Fleeks for his many contributions to his community.
Franklin Columbus Fleeks' son was Edward Dubois Fleeks, author,
educator and rancher and later in life an evangelist.
Edward Dubois had a daughter, Edwardlene Fleeks Willis who
returned to Texas after many years and located her home on a
portion of the Fleeks Farm that she and her brother, Franklin
Dubois Fleeks, an attorney for the Alaska Legislator, inherited.
The Fleeks homestead has been designated as a historical site by
the state of Texas.
Fleeks Farm is also a part of the Texas Family Land Heritage
Program for continuous operation by the same family for over 100
years.
Edwardlene has two sons Myron Willis of California and Miles
Willis of Washington, DC who visit the home-land often bringing
their children who walk the same land as their great great great
grandparents did in the mid 1800's and is still owned by the
same family.
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