Belew Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Around 1856, two wagons weren't enough. Forty families weren't enough either, but that's what it took.

Richard Aaron Belew, who folks called Dick, born in 1820, and his wife Mary Jane Belew, born in 1822, loaded up their five children and joined thirty-nine other families making the long haul by wagon from Tennessee to Denton County, Texas. Forty families, all pointed the same direction, all lookin' for the same thing. They stopped on a hill.

Could've been anywhere, but it was this hill, in what would become known as the Belew schoolhouse settlement, sitting on the A.G. Stapp survey north of Aubrey. And once you stopped on a hill like that with forty families around you, well, you were home.

A school opened up not long after, right there in a log cabin at the site. Then the log cabin became a church too, because that's how frontier communities worked. One building carrying more than its share.

The cemetery settled in close by, as cemeteries do near the places where people gather to live and to worship. Now, Dick Belew, born 1820, lived a long life, all the way to 1900. And it was in October of 1880 that the citizens of the Belew schoolhouse community bought the first piece of land from Richard Aaron Belew himself, designated as a public graveyard.

Two point eight acres to start. And if you walk that ground today, you'll find over seventy red sandstone rocks marking many of those earliest graves. Seventy pieces of stone standing quiet witness.

By the early 1900s, the Belew Cemetery had grown into the main burial ground for the whole Aubrey area. Mary Jane Belew, born 1822, passed in 1902. Same year, six women decided something needed to be done about keeping this place.

Kate Hodges, born 1857. Mary L. Henderson, who went by Mollie, born 1854.

Ola Price, born 1877. Bettie Catlett, born 1855. Mary Caddell, born 1854.

And Nora McIntosh, born 1872. Those six women organized the Ladies Cemetery Society in 1902 to raise funds for the care of the cemetery. Now here's the part of this story I want you to sit with for a moment.

To raise money for additional land, the Ladies Cemetery Society voted to hold a Thanksgiving dinner for the community. Simple idea. Good food, good neighbors, good cause.

That fundraiser ran for eighty-five years. Eighty-five years of Thanksgiving dinners. That's not a tradition, that's a covenant.

The money they raised let the society, later renamed the Belew Cemetery Association, purchase additional land in 1903. Fund construction of a house for the Sexton in 1906. Build a Pavilion in 1910.

More land came in 1962 and again in 1983. The association's first directors represented the rural school districts of the surrounding area, keeping those roots tied tight to the community that started it all. Today, early settlers are buried here.

Association founders are buried here. And veterans, from the Civil War all the way to the Gulf War, rest in this ground. Dick and Mary Jane Belew stopped on a hill around 1856, and what grew from that stopping place is still growing.

Eighty-five years of Thanksgiving dinners will do that to a piece of land. It stops being ground and starts being a promise kept.

What the marker says

Around 1856, Richard (Dick) Aaron Belew (1820-1900) and Mary Jane Belew (1822-1902), their five children and 39 other families came together by wagon from Tennessee to Denton County. They stopped on a hill in an area later known as the belew schoolhouse settlement, part of the A.G. Stapp survey north of Aubrey. A school soon opened in a log cabin at the site and was later used as a church. The cemetery was located in close proximity to the school. The first piece of land was purchased in October 1880 from Richard Aaron Belew by the citizens of the belew schoolhouse community to be used as a public grave yard. Over 70 red sandstone rocks mark many of the early graves in this original 2.8 acres. By the early 1900s, the Belew Cemetery was established as the main burial ground for the aubrey area. In 1902, a ladies cemetery society was organized by Kate Hodges (1857-1906), Mary L. (Mollie) Henderson (1854-1919), Ola Price (1877-1955), Bettie Catlett (1855-1918), Mary Caddell (1854-1940) and Nora McIntosh (1872-1965) to raise funds for the care of the cemetery. To raise money for additional land, the Ladies Cemetery Society voted to hold a Thanksgiving dinner for the community. For 85 years, this fundraiser was a success and allowed the society, later renamed the Belew Cemetery Association, to purchase additional land in 1903 and for the construction of a house for the Sexton in 1906 and a Pavilion in 1910. Additional land was acquired in 1962 and 1983. The association's first directors represented rural school districts in the surrounding area. Early settlers, association founders and veterans from the Civil War to the Gulf War are buried here. This historic cemetery continues to honor the area's heritage and ancestors.