Barron Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. John Barron came out of Virginia, made his way to Grayson County, and in 1870 he bought himself a good farm. Now, John had lived through the Civil War, so he knew something about the weight of the land and what it meant to put down roots.

He married twice. His first wife, Delilah Ward, was gone by the 1860s. His second was Margaret McElroy.

Between the two marriages, John Barron raised fifteen children. Fifteen. That is not a family, that is a congregation.

And as it turned out, a congregation was more or less what he had in mind. Around 1875, John gave a piece of that good Grayson County farm for a church-school building and for a community cemetery. He gave the ground, and eventually the ground gave him the same courtesy.

John Barron, born in 1831, died in 1887, and he was buried right there, along with some other members of his family. Now, John may be the name on the cemetery, but he is not the first soul laid to rest in it. That distinction belongs to William Jenkins, born in 1829, died in 1878, a Confederate veteran himself, and the earliest known among some six dozen interments.

The burial ground closed around 1920, but the story does not end there. In 1971, the descendants of these families came together and formed the Barron Cemetery Association, to make sure that ground stays cared for. John Barron gave the land once.

Turns out, that was enough to keep people coming back to tend it more than a century later.

What the marker says

Named for John Barron (1831-87), a Civil War veteran who came here from Virginia and bought a good farm in 1870. Married first to Delilah Ward (d. 1860s), then to Margaret McElroy, he had fifteen children. About 1875 he gave land for a church-school building and this community cemetery, where he and some other members of his family were later buried. William Jenkins (1829-78), who also was a Confederate veteran, is earliest known among some six dozen interments. Burial ground, closed about 1920, is cared for by descendants who have formed (1971) the Barron Cemetery Association.