Reverend David Elias Dibble

Reverend David Elias Dibble. , David Elias Dibble was born enslaved in Darien, Georgia and brought to Texas in 1837. He was self-educated and was a carpenter by trade. Dibble became a respected religious and community leader. In 1864, he became an anointed preacher. A year later he organized and became pastor of Houston's first Freedmen's Methodist congregation (formerly an African mission). The congregation later chose the name Trinity Methodist Episcopal Church. Dibble and the church trustees worked with the Freedmen's Bureau to unite families in marriage. They also organized a church school which operated until the 1870 opening of the Gregory Institute, for which Dibble was appointed a trustee. Reverend Dibble was a founder of the Mutual Aid Society and member of the Most Worshipful Prince Hall Grand Lodge Free and Accepted Masons of Texas, Magnolia Lodge No. 3. He also co-founded Olivewood Cemetery, one of the oldest colored cemeteries in Houston (1875). The Trinity and Antioch Missionary Baptist Church congregations held annual festive picnics to celebrate the emancipation of enslaved blacks. These two congregations later formed the Colored People of Harris County Festival Association in 1872. That same year, the association purchased the land to establish Emancipation Park.