DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. You're rolling past Arlington Cemetery, and friend, this place holds more history per acre than most folks realize — more than ten acres of it, to be precise, and every inch has got a story underneath. See, this isn't just one cemetery.
It's several, folded into each other over time like layers of an old quilt. You've got the original old cemetery of Arlington, the W. W.
McNatt Cemetery addition, the Masonic Cemetery, and the Old City Cemetery, all gathered together within these borders. Now that name McNatt — William W. McNatt — he's worth a pause.
He brought his family here from Arkansas in 1872, made himself a retail merchant and a large scale farmer in this area. And in 1899, he sold the cemetery property to the Arlington Cemetery Society. That's how these grounds began their long, official life.
Then, in 1923, another group — the Arlington Cemetery Association — got itself chartered and took on the task of maintaining the graveyard for many years, until eventually the City of Arlington stepped in and assumed ownership and maintenance. Passed hand to hand, generation to generation, like a sacred trust ought to be. Now, the oldest documented burial here — and this one'll quiet you down if you let it — is that of little Mattie Luna Cooper, just one year old, 1874 to 1875.
Daughter of J. D. and Luna A. Cooper, pioneer Arlington settlers.
One year on this earth, and her name is the oldest on the record. Alongside her, in the ground of this place, lie numerous other early settlers, and veterans — veterans of conflicts stretching all the way from the Civil War to World War II. Men who saw things no man should have to see, buried side by side across a century of American conflict.
And then there are the names of the men who ran this town. At least seven former postmasters rest here. And the mayors — oh, the mayors.
M. J. Brinson, George M.
Finger, Emmett E. Rankin, Williams C. Weeks, Thomas B.
Collins, T. G. Bailey, W.
H. Davis, Preston F. McKee, William H.
Rose, Will G. Hiett, and Harold E. Patterson.
Eleven former mayors of Arlington, Texas, all gathered in this same ten acres. The people who shaped this place, now part of it permanently. That's Arlington Cemetery — not just a graveyard, but the whole long arc of a community, pressed into the soil.
What the marker says
Encompassing more than ten acres of land, Arlington Cemetery includes within its borders several small historic graveyards, including the original old cemetery of Arlington, the W. W. McNatt Cemetery addition, the Masonic Cemetery, and the Old City Cemetery. William W. McNatt, who brought his family here from Arkansas in 1872, was a retail merchant and large scale farmer in this area. He sold the cemetery property to the Arlington Cemetery Society in 1899. Another group, the Arlington Cemetery Association, was chartered in 1923 and maintained the graveyard for many years until the City of Arlington assumed ownership and maintenance. The oldest documented burial here is that of one-year-old Mattie Luna Cooper (1874-75), daughter of pioneer Arlington settlers J. D. and Luna A. Cooper. Numerous other early settlers also are buried here, as are veterans of conflicts from the Civil War to World War II. Local officials interred in the graveyard include at least seven former postmasters and the following former mayors: M. J. Brinson, George M. Finger, Emmett E. Rankin, Williams C. Weeks, Thomas B. Collins, T. G. Bailey, W. H. Davis, Preston F. McKee, William H. Rose, Will G. Hiett and Harold E. Patterson.