Coppell Celebrates Pioneer Day

Featured Photo: Trevor Scofield, a family search consultant, helps residents search for ancestors online. Photo by Yissel Lingenbrink

On Saturday, October 15, 2022, the city of Coppell, Texas, celebrated Pioneer Day with vendors and booths providing games and foods from the past. Volunteers from the local congregation of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints gave lessons in making cloth dolls, searching for ancestors on FamilySearch.com, and playing pioneer games. Attendees also got to experience riding on an authentic pioneer handcart.

“We know a lot about pioneers, so it just makes sense for us to share that history with our city, ” said Heather Thurgood, a member of the Coppell congregation of The Church of Jesus Christ. “With our history of the Church and knowledge of ancestors, this was a great way for us to get involved.”

[Every three years the youth of the church recreate the crossing of the plains by the early pioneers, giving them firsthand experience of the hardships they endured.]

Pioneer Day in Coppell is organized by the Coppell Historical Society with the intent of creating a walk-through history of the early days of Coppell living. The pioneers of Coppell sustained themselves through farming the land that runs north and south on Denton Tap and focused heavily on community and family.

The local communications committee for the Church of Jesus Christ joined the planning effort in 2019. For two years, the event was postponed due to the pandemic that impeded public gatherings in 2020. 2020. Pioneer Day resumed in 2022 with several new booths including a petting, zoo, soap making, and computers with a short lesson on how to search for ancestors.

“At the community event, we sat with about 25 individuals who knew a few dates and places and […] were able to find original records as well as expanded family trees on FamilySearch,” said Family History Consultant for the Church, Bill Cangelosi. “It was thrilling to see them light up as they recognized their relative and then to see how far back many of the trees went. We also invited them to a series of three short instructional zoom classes that would get them started researching their family tree.”

The event took place at Heritage Park, surrounding the Minyard Grocery and Market by Old Town Coppell. The Minyard Store is a replica to mimic the first grocery stores in the area. Vintage gifts, postcards and candy are sold at the grocery store which opened for business recently. A ribbon-cutting ceremony took place prior to the start of the event.

“Everyone on the Historical Committee was so helpful and supportive of our participation,” said Cangelosi. “I believe a town that supports its citizens in connecting with their extended family can make for a stronger community. We hope we can partner more with Coppell in the future to help in that effort.”