Barclay Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm going to give it to you straight. The town of Barclay, out here in Falls County, got its start in 1877. That's the year William Anderson Barclay opened a General Mercantile store on this very ground.

Now, W. A. Barclay, born in 1849, was not a man who did things halfway.

He was a leader in farming, business, commercial and industrial circles throughout central Texas. He ran a large horse and cattle ranch nearby. And in 1881, he was appointed the town's first postmaster.

The man had his hands in just about everything worth doing in this part of the state. As settlers moved in, the way they do when a place starts to feel like something real, the community needed more than a mercantile and a post office. It needed a church.

It needed a place to lay its people to rest. In 1881, a pioneer by the name of Lyddleton Smith, who had come from Washington County, assigned three acres of land for a Baptist Church. The congregation that organized on that land became known as Beulah Baptist Church, and it would later carry the Barclay name.

The members set aside part of that property for a burial ground, and so the cemetery was born. The oldest grave in Barclay Cemetery dates from 1882. That same year, a Confederate veteran named Paul Pieper moved his family to town.

Pieper, born in 1849, would prove to be a neighbor worth having. In 1886, he donated part of his own acreage for additional burial grounds. And when he died in 1914, he deeded still more land to the cemetery.

Some folks give what they can spare. Pieper gave what he had. The cemetery has been enlarged several times over the years, tended and kept by the Barclay Cemetery Association since 1915.

More than a hundred years of use, more than a hundred years of names and dates and stories pressed into this Falls County soil. William Barclay opened a store, Lyddleton Smith gave three acres, Paul Pieper gave the rest of what he had, and a community built something that outlasted all of them. That's Barclay Cemetery, and it's still here to prove it.

What the marker says

The town of Barclay was founded in 1877 when William Anderson Barclay (1849-1927) opened a General Mercantile store here. A leader in farming, business, commercial and industrial circles throughout central Texas, W. A. Barclay also operated a large horse and cattle ranch nearby and was appointed the town's first postmaster in 1881. As more settlers moved into the area, the need for a church and cemetery became evident. In 1881 pioneer Lyddleton Smith of Washington County assigned three acres of land for a Baptist Church. The congregation that was organized became known as Beulah (later Barclay) Baptist Church, and its members set aside part of the property for a burial ground. Barclay Cemetery, with its oldest grave dating from 1882,has been enlarged several times over the years. Confederate veteran Paul Pieper (1849-1914), who moved his family to the town in 1882, donated part of his acreage for additional burial grounds in 1886 and deeded more land to the cemetery upon his death. The graveyard has been maintained by the Barclay Cemetery Association since 1915. In use for more than 100 years, the burial ground remains an important part of the history of this community.