Bethel Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker at Bethel Cemetery has to say, and this one's got more layers than you might expect from a quiet patch of Ellis County ground. Now, it starts the way a lot of good Texas stories start: with somebody giving something away. Back in 1852, a man named N.P.

Sims, born in 1806, and he'd live all the way to 1902, so he had time to see what came of his generosity, he gave ten acres of land out at High Springs, about four miles west of where we're standing now, to the trustees of Bethel Methodist Church. Ten acres for a church and a burial ground. That's a serious gift, and a serious commitment to a community putting down roots.

But here's where the story takes a turn. That first site at High Springs didn't end up being the permanent home. By 1868, two more men, G.H.

Cunningham, born in 1828, and P.C. Sims, born in 1819, they gave the church trustees another ten acres, this time right here at Bethel. A second gift.

A new anchor. The earliest marked grave on this ground belongs to the Reverend J.W. Reynolds, who was born in 1816 and died in 1873.

Think about that: someone took care to mark that grave, to make sure the Reverend wasn't forgotten. And they were right to do it. Decades roll by.

In 1918, the trustees of the Bethel Cemetery Association purchased three point nine acres of that original ten-acre plot from the Church itself, the community, in a sense, buying back a piece of its own history to steward it properly. And the story of giving wasn't finished yet. In 1961, the heirs of Cunningham and P.C.

Sims, the children and grandchildren carrying forward what those men had started, gave fourteen adjoining acres to the site. Today, this ground holds over four hundred graves. Including, if you take a moment to look, the graves of all three of the original land donors themselves.

N.P. Sims. G.H.

Cunningham. P.C. Sims.

The men who gave the land are resting in it. Some people leave a place a building. Some leave a name on a deed.

These three left a place where four hundred souls could be remembered. That's not nothing. That's everything.

What the marker says

In 1852 N.P. Sims (1806-1902) gave 10 acres of land at High Springs (4 mi. W) for a church and burial ground to trustees of Bethel Methodist Church. Several graves remain there. G.H. Cunningham (1828-1916) and P.C. Sims (1819-1903) gave church trustees 10 acres here at Bethel in 1868. Earliest marked grave is that of the Rev. J.W. Reynolds (1816-1873). In 1918 trustees of Bethel Cemetery Association bought 3.9 acres of the 10-acre plot from the Church. Heirs of Cunningham and P.C. Sims gave 14 adjoining acres in 1961. The site has over 400 graves, including those of the 3 original land donors. (1978)