DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Alexander Cemetery, out in Erath County. Now, most cemeteries start with a deed, a church council vote, maybe a surveyor drawing lines in the dirt. This one started with a child, and a door that wouldn't open.
The ground we're talkin' about has been receiving the departed of southern Erath County since the late eighteen hundreds. Back then, the community of Alexander was doing just fine, thank you very much. The Texas Central Railroad Company had platted the town, and by the eighteen nineties it had built itself a respectable collection of businesses.
Settlers had been working that land since before the Civil War, and in eighteen seventy-six the community even had a post office — went by the name Harper's Mill in those days. Then in eighteen eighty-one, it was renamed Alexander, and that's the name that stuck. Now, in the early eighteen eighties, a Confederate veteran by the name of Thomas Pinckney Tidwell packed up and made the long move from North Carolina to Texas, traveling with his wife, Zera Ann — she was a Passmore before she married — and other family members along for the journey.
They eventually settled right there in Alexander. And here is where the story turns. A child from a Mexican family died.
And when that family sought to lay their child to rest in a local cemetery, they were told no. The door was closed to them. Thomas Pinckney Tidwell heard about it.
And Thomas Pinckney Tidwell did not let it stand. He established a burial ground — a public burial ground, open to area citizens regardless of religion or ethnic affiliation. No exceptions, no conditions.
And the Tidwell family went one step further: they donated an ornate cross to mark that child's burial site. The very reason the place exists is honored there in the ground to this day. Now, the oldest dated grave in the cemetery belongs to a woman named Sarah Ethetton, who died in eighteen seventy-nine.
She was later reinterred in the cemetery, shortly after its establishment. So even the earliest stone carries a story of being moved, of being welcomed in. Over the years, Alexander Cemetery received community leaders and veterans of military conflicts going all the way back to the Civil War.
The Alexander Cemetery Association tends to the grounds now, keepin' faith with what Tidwell started. The community of Alexander itself has faded with time. But that burial ground endures — as a reminder of the pioneers who shaped southern Erath County, and as something rarer than most monuments you'll pass on a Texas highway.
It's a monument to charity. To human compassion. To one man who, when a grieving family had nowhere to turn, simply said: there's room here.
That's the kind of thing that outlasts a railroad town.
What the marker says
This burial ground has served residents of southern Erath County since the late 1800s. At that time, the community of Alexander, platted by the Texas Central Railroad Company, was thriving. The community had received a post office in 1876, when it was named Harper's Mill (it was renamed Alexander in 1881), although settlers had lived in the area since before the Civil War. By the 1890s, Alexander had a number of businesses. In the early 1880s, Confederate veteran Thomas Pinckney Tidwell, his wife Zera Ann (Passmore) Tidwell and other family members migrated from North Carolina to Texas. The Tidwells eventually settled in Alexander. Tidwell established this burial ground when a child of a Mexican family died and was not allowed burial in a local cemetery. Tidwell established a public burial ground open to area citizens regardless of religion or ethnic affiliation, and the Tidwell family donated an ornate cross to mark the child's burial site. However, the oldest dated grave is that of Sarah Ethetton (d. 1879), who was later reinterred in the cemetery shortly after its establishment. Among the notable burials in Alexander Cemetery are those of community leaders and of veterans of military conflicts dating to the Civil War. The Alexander Cemetery Association cares for the burial ground. Today, the cemetery serves as a reminder of area pioneers and the former community of Alexander. As a place of free burial, Alexander Cemetery also continues as a monument to charity and human compassion, represented by Thomas Pinckney Tidwell's offer to a family in need. Historic Texas Cemetery - 2006