Cemeteries

A lost cemetery located in a grove of trees atop a hill about three-fourths of a mile northwest of the Big Creek Bridge on Highway 67 west of Mt. Vernon. There were possibly ten graves although only six markers remain today. Two of the six markers are stone and four are wooden stakes. One of the stone markers is a marble tombstone. This marble tombstone is inscribed to the memory of Elizabeth Yates who was born March 23, 1850 and died July 12, 1857.

This is a small family cemetery of about 25 graves. Although no road leads to this cemetery today, it is fenced and cared for by members of the Wims family. It is in the northern end of the county about three miles northeast of Hagansport. The oldest tombstone is that of John Wims who was born in 1852 and died April 12, 1865. The latest burial to take place in this cemetery was that of Lena Wims, wife of Richard Wims, who was born Sept. 20, 1862 and died Nov. 9, 1936.

There were 44 students enrolled in the Wims school in the 1907-08 school year.

Lost Negro cemetery about one mile south of the Hamilton Community northwest of Mt. Vernon. A Negro community of perhaps ten or twelve families lived in this area through the 1930's. As late as 1960 several marble tombstones identified the site of this cemetery; however, no trace of these markers can be found today. The markers have either been stolen or have fallen and been covered over with debris. The cemetery is called Wakefield because several members of the Russ Wakefield family are said to be buried there. Probably members of other families in the community are also buried there.

The Hamilton community (The Anglo community was known as Hamilton; earliest members of this family are buried in the Yates Cemetery. Blacks are buried in the Wakefield Cemetery.)

The Hamilton Community had 39 colored students in the colored school in the 1907-08 school year. There were 21 students enrolled in the white Hamilton school.

(ALSO CALLED BRANAN)

This is a small fenced, abandoned cemetery of the Branan and Snodgrass Families. There are no more than 15 graves, five of which are marked with tombstones. The earliest marked gravesite is that of James Branan who was born April 28, 1850 and died Feb. 17, 1878. The latest burial is probably that of Margaret R. Branan who died Feb. 4, 1932.

A lost cemetery in the woods about one-fourth mile north of the Murphree Cemetery. Although there may have been other graves, only three are distinguishable today. There is a double tombstone for Noah Smith and his wife, Mary E., and a single tombstone for Della May, daughter of W.W. and Mollie Smith. Mary E. Smith, who died in May 1891, has the earliest marked grave.

A lost family cemetery about two miles northeast of Hagansport. Mr. Monroe Elliott of Hagansport directed me to this cemetery. According to Mr. Elliott there were once about ten wooden stakes marking gravesites in this cemetery. There have been no burials in at least 60 years. The cemetery is on land belonging to Mr. Will Singleton and is rented to Billy Bert Newsom.

This lost cemetery is said to be the cemetery for a group of Seventh Day Adventist families which moved into the northern end of the county in the 1880's. It is beside a black top road about four miles east of Highway 37 at the Lake Chapel House of Prayer. There are seven recognizable graves marked by large stones or wooden stakes under two ancient cedars.

A small cemetery of some 50 graves located about three miles north of Winnsboro. No tombstones dating before 1900 was found in this small well-kept cemetery. One Confederate veteran is buried in this cemetery - Levi Glover of Company F of the Third Louisiana Calvary. Members of the Elliott, Henry, Berry, and Payne families are buried in this cemetery.

This cemetery had a beautiful springs enclosed within the cemetery grounds surrounded by a grove of trees where the families held picnics on cleaning up and decoration days.

The school at Rock Springs had 27 students enrolled in the 1907-08 school year.

Cemetery south of Macon about one mile. This cemetery covers approximately one acre, but only about 100 gravesites can be found today. The cemetery is surrounded by a barbed wire fence and can be reached only by crossing a cattle guard and following a right-of-way through a private pasture. The cemetery is in very poor condition and probably few burials have taken place in the last 40 years. Burials probably started in the late 1870's. The earliest monument is to the memory of Willie H. Terrell who was born April 4, 1879 and died July 11, 1881.

The school at Rock Hill had 59 students enrolled in 1907-08 school year.

Cemetery located in the Purley community containing at least 250 graves. This cemetery is in excellent condition. The earliest grave is that of John J. Roberts who was born May 21, 1837 and died April 18, 1889. Burials probably did not start in the cemetery until the Purley Church was built nearby in the 1880's. Early residents in the Purley community buried their dead in the Liberty or Pleasant Hill Cemeteries. Pleasant Hill Cemetery is affiliated with the adjacent Pleasant Hill Methodist Episcopal Church (disbanded about 1940). Liberty Cemetery was more of a community cemetery and was only about _ mile from Purley.

The school at Purley had 40 students enrolled in the 1907-08 school year.

Purley had a post office, organized with the appointment of William H. Canaday on May 21, 1879. Two other postmasters served - Caleb Jordan and William W. Long - until the office was discontinued on November 30, 1906, and mail ordered sent to Mt. Vernon, eight miles to the north.

Cemetery of over 1,000 graves located about three miles south of Mt. Vernon. This cemetery is well cared for and is enclosed by a chain link fence. Across the road from it is the Providence Primitive Baptist Church. The first burials in this cemetery probably took place in the 1860's. The earliest tombstone in the cemetery is that of John L. Wilkerson who died Sept. 8, 1870. John L. was the son of J.W. and Fannie Wilkerson. The oldest tombstone of any adult buried in the Providence Cemetery is that of Nixon Davis who was born in April 1826 and died Sept. 28, 1871.

Contact: Dale Jordan

This is a poorly kept cemetery of some 50 graves located in the western edge of the Talco Oil Field. The cemetery is just within the bounds of Franklin County. It is surrounded by a chain link fence. The oldest tombstone and only one dating before 1900 is that of Rufus Nowell who was born Nov. 25, 1859 and died Aug. 19, 1896.

An excellently preserved cemetery west of the Purley community. There are at least 400 graves. Captain F. Marion Hastings is buried in the cemetery and a Texas Historical marker designates his grave. The Pleasant Hill Cemetery is the site of an old camp meeting ground of the Methodist Church and at least four acres surrounding the cemetery still belong to the Methodist Church. Burials probably started in the 1890's although no tombstone dating before 1900 could be found.

There is a deed into the Methodist Church in 1875 for land. The camp meeting ground was used until the 1930's. There was an excellent spring which supported the camp meetings and church use.

School here had 44 students in 1907-08 school year.

Contact: Mrs. Eileen Balli

9500 S. Bryant Terrace
Oklahoma City, Okla. 73160

(KEITH)

This is also called the Keith Cemetery because of the many members of the Keith family buried in this cemetery. Located about two miles northwest of the Hagansport community, this cemetery is the oldest cemetery in the northern part of the county. This cemetery is uncared for and is in very poor condition. Mrs. Immadell Hunt of Hagansport directed me to this and several other cemeteries of the Hagansport area. The oldest grave with a tombstone in this cemetery is that of Mary Walker, the daughter of L.S. and Susan Walker, who was born Oct. 26, 1857 and died Jan. 10, 1865.

Contact: Van Stanley; John Stanley

This is a small family cemetery near the old Huckleberry community about six miles northeast of Mt. Vernon. Mr. and Mrs. Jim Laughton told me of this cemetery and then directed me to it. The cemetery is in the middle of a woods and can only be seen when nearly upon it. It is surrounded by a chain link fence, but is rapidly deteriorating. There are nine tombstones and perhaps 30 graves. The two earliest graves are those of James M. Perrin and his wife Virginia Perrin. James Perrin was born Oct. 2, 1813. Virginia Perrin was born Jan. 6, 1822. They died on the same day, Nov. 12, 1866. The last burial in the cemetery was that of Ramon Perrin, son of W.L. and Mary Perrin, who died Jan. 26, 1905.

(ALSO CALLED CARSON)

A neglected cemetery located about one-half mile north of the Emerson Dairy Farm. The cemetery is in the center of what was once the Union community. It is located about ten miles southwest of Mt. Vernon. The cemetery is not fenced and is in very poor condition. No road leads to it today. Some people call it the Carson Cemetery, but there are no marked Carson burials in this cemetery. Members of the O�Neal, Canaday, Huffman, and Woosley families are buried in this cemetery. There are other unmarked graves and they probably represent other families. The earliest tombstone is that of the infant daughter of D.M. and Louisa Huffman who died November 15, 1859. The latest burial to take place in the cemetery was probably that of Ann Huffman who died Dec. 5, 1912. There are five very interesting unmarked crypts in this cemetery. No one knows who is buried within the crypts.

There were 82 students enrolled in the school here in the 1907-08 school year. Although the cemetery was back to the west of the school area, there is still a Center Grove Baptist Church active about _ mile east of the cemetery area on a public road.

This is a small family cemetery of about 25 graves located about two miles east of the Lake Chapel House of Prayer on Highway 37. Most of the graves are for members of the Murphree family although members of the Goode and Price families and also buried in this cemetery. The tombstone of Lillie Mae Murphree, daughter of W.E. and L.A. Murphree, is the oldest in the cemetery. Lillie Mae Murphree died in 1904.

This cemetery is near the Hog Bed Community. The School was known as the Panther's Chapel or Hog Bed School. (Hogs would get under the floor of the wooden school; root around and make noise; thus called "hog bed school"). There were 29 students enrolled in the 1907-08 school year.

Largest cemetery in Franklin County with well over 2,500 graves. Located on the south side of Highway 67 West just within the Mt. Vernon city limits. Oldest marked gravesite in the county is that of S.J. Ely in the city cemetery who died in 1852. Harry B. Carr also has one of the oldest marked gravesites in the county - born June 22, 1805, died Sept. 15, 1853. The oldest marked gravesite in Titus County is dated 1843. The oldest in Lamar County is dated 1837. Considering the movement of civilization into Texas from the North and East, it is understandable that tombstones would make their first appearance in Franklin County by 1852.

Mt. Vernon schools showed 213 students in the white school in 1907-08 school year; 72 students in colored school.

The location of this cemetery is of considerable merit. The original townsite for the town of Mt. Vernon begins with some rough buildings around a good water supply, the Fanning Springs, in the 1830's. The quality of this water bubbling out of the ground insures an early interest from Indians and then white settlers. Members of the Humphries and Gregg families have arrived in what is now Franklin County in 1808. Anthony Glass had traveled very near here if not to this spring as early as 1808. Fanning Springs gives rise to town branch which flows north from the springs, ultimately feeding into White Oak Creek, a part of the drainage of the Mississippi River. The church which ultimately became First Baptist Church of Mt. Vernon was built on the hill across from the springs in 1849. The town had a post office established with the appointment of William S. Keith on July 20, 1848. Given Keith landholdings near the springs, and land titles indicating a town site at the spring, the placement of the cemetery on the hill east of the springs is logical. Given that there is no marked burial before 1849, it is hard to determine if the cemetery followed the church or if the church was built near existing burials. The configuration of the town changed drastically in 1849 when Stephen and Rebecca Keith gave 24 acres about 3/4ths of a mile north of the springs. The 24 acres was laid out into lots and blocks and by 1900, the commercial life of the city had moved totally up to the public square laid out pursuant to the 1849 deed of gift. The cemetery continued to develop on the hill above the springs.

The 1849 deed of gift for 24 acres was to "the trustees of the town of Mt. Vernon." At that time there were three Mt. Vernon's in Texas. It was not until 1875, with the demise of the other two towns, that Mt. Vernon was allowed to use that name for its post office. The post office was named Keith in the 1848 appointment; and was changed to Lone Star on November 19, 1850, and was changed to Mt. Vernon on September 21, 1875.

Cemetery located northeast of Mt. Vernon across White Oak Creek. It is a well-kept cemetery behind the Midway Church. The foregoing commentary was written for a 1973 publication by B.F. Hicks and Doris Meek. Soon after that time, the church was discontinued; today there is a covered arbor. The cemetery was started about 1900; but no tombstones were found dating before 1900.

This cemetery is about _ mile west of the Cherokee Trace and the cemetery is in the Lodebar Miller Survey. Lodebar Miller is the half-blood brother of Charles S. Stewart. Charles S. Stewart led the wagon train of pioneers who settled along the Cherokee Trace in 1838. Stewart will organize the first band of angry pioneers to attack Indians just north of here after the Massace of the Ripley Family further south on the Cherokee Trace on April 10, 1841. His half-brother Lodebar Miller settles here. Stewart organizes a band of Confederates in 1861 and is the first casualty of the Civil War from Titus County; killed in 1861 fighting Indians loyal to the Union just across the Red River in the Battle of Round Mountain. Stewart's two half-brothers and his two brothers-in-law (Silas Hughes and Harmon Hughes) are with him. Stewart's sister-in-law Mary Hughes Brown is buried here (died May 26, 1925).

This lost cemetery is located about seven miles northeast of Mt. Vernon on the Slaughter Ranch. It is in the middle of a dense thicket and was found only after considerable trouble by Mr. Otis H. Slaughter, Jr., my uncle, Mr. Charles Hughes, and B.F. Hicks in 1968. Only one tombstone could be found, but Mr. Hughes and Mr. Slaughter both report that there were two other tombstones at one time. The tombstones mark the graves of Mexican copper miners who settled in the area in the 1870's. Several years ago someone dug into the graves and three sunken areas still remain in the vicinity of the graveyard. The single remaining tombstone stands about five feet high and is about two feet wide and four inches thick. The letters ALM are inscribed on the tombstone.