Ash Creek Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker at Ash Creek Cemetery tells it, and I'll pass it along just as it stands. Now, out here in Tarrant County, there's a patch of ground that's been holding the community's history close for a long, long time. Ash Creek Cemetery, they call it, and if you want to know how far back its roots go, you start with two names carved into the oldest known graves on the property.

Dave Morrison, born in 1849, gone by 1874. And W. P.

Gregg, born 1833, also gone in 1874. Two men, two stones, marking the earliest known threshold of this burial ground. Makes you wonder what kind of place this was back then, doesn't it; young enough that somebody had to step forward and say, we need land for our dead.

And step forward they did. Two men in particular. Dr.

James Azle Stewart (the very man for whom Azle is named) and John Giles Reynolds, an early grist mill operator in the area. Each of them donated an acre of land to establish the cemetery. One acre apiece.

Not sold, mind you. Donated. And here's the part that'll sit with you a moment: both Stewart and Reynolds are buried here themselves, in the very ground they gave away.

There's something in that worth a quiet nod. Now, a cemetery needs more than land; it needs tending, it needs records, it needs somebody paying attention. So in 1922, the Azle Cemetery Association was organized to do exactly that: care for the site and keep the burial records straight.

And they didn't stop there. The Association bought additional land in 1932, then again in 1947, and once more in 1959. They also constructed a tabernacle on the grounds.

Expansion, stewardship, permanence; that's the pattern they laid down. Today, Ash Creek Cemetery holds over two thousand graves. Two thousand souls kept by a community that started with two donated acres and a conviction that the dead deserve to be remembered right.

What the marker says

The oldest known graves in this community burial ground are those of Dave Morrison (1849-1874) and W. P. Gregg (1833-1874). Dr. James Azle Stewart, for whom Azle is named, and John Giles Reynolds, early grist mill operator, each donated an acre of land to establish the cemetery. Both Stewart and Reynolds are buried here. The Azle Cemetery Association was organized in 1922 to care for the site and to keep burial records. The Association bought additional land in 1932, 1947 and 1959 and constructed a tabernacle on the grounds. There are over 2,000 graves in Ash Creek Cemetery. (1985)