Baccus Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker records about Baccus Cemetery, out in Collin County. Now, before there was a cemetery, before there was a church, before there was even much of anything out here, there was a man named Henry Cook. Born in 1775.

That means by the time he pulled up stakes and settled here in 1845, he was seventy years old. Seventy. And he wasn't some greenhorn; Henry Cook had served in the War of 1812, which tells you something about the kind of man who'd still be striking out for new territory in his eighth decade on this earth.

He came as a member of the Peters Colony, and he built himself a log house right nearby. That house became a landmark on the Shawnee Trail. Travelers out on that trail knew Henry Cook's log house.

It was a fixed point in an unfixed world. But 1847 brought something harder. Henry used that property for a purpose no father wants: to bury his son Daniel, born in 1831, gone before his time.

That was the first burial. That was how a homestead became a cemetery. Henry himself lived on until 1862.

Eighty-seven years old. A War of 1812 veteran who'd outlasted most everything. And when the story of this land passed forward, it passed through his daughter Rachel, Rachel Cook Baccus.

In 1878, she deeded that burial ground to Henry's heirs, making sure the ground her family had consecrated with grief wouldn't slip away. And she didn't stop there. She later donated adjoining land so that a church could be built: the Baccus Christian Church Sanctuary, raised right alongside the graves.

The cemetery took her name around 1915. Not Henry's name. Rachel's.

The woman who protected it, expanded it, gave the community a place to gather and a place to rest. The church was disbanded in the 1930s. Gone now.

But the cemetery, the one named in Rachel's honor, is still in use. Some places outlast everything built around them. This is one of those places.

What the marker says

Henry Cook (1775-1862), a veteran of the War of 1812, settled here in 1845 as a member of the Peters Colony. His log house, located nearby, was a landmark on the Shawnee Trail. He first used this property as a family cemetery in 1847 for the burial of his son Daniel (b. 1831). His daughter Rachel Cook Baccus deeded the burial ground to his heirs in 1878. She later donated adjoining land for construction of the Baccus Christian Church Sanctuary. The cemetery, named in her honor about 1915, is still in use. The church was disbanded in the 1930s. ** (1980)***