DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Big Eye Cemetery out in Comanche County. George William Montgomery came to Comanche County from Mississippi back in 1855, and right there is a man worth watching. He wasn't just passing through — he was putting down roots in Texas soil.
Then in 1869, George and Nancy C. Montgomery, she was a Hicks before she married him, went and purchased 480 acres in the Andrew Crier Survey. Bought it from Jessie and Alice Mercer.
Nearly half a thousand acres of Texas, and George had plans for it. He built a log church on that land. And that church pulled double duty — it also served as a school, and they called that school Big Eye.
Now that's a name that sticks with you, isn't it. Big Eye. You don't forget a name like that.
George himself was the one keepin' the place running. He was the community's school teacher, the doctor, and the minister. One man, three callings, out there on those Texas plains.
Near that church, in 1872, they established Big Eye Cemetery. The last known burial came in 1894, and between those two years, a community laid its people to rest in a square plot measuring 150 feet on each side. When you look at what's there now — five marked graves, six unknown crypts arranged in a row, and approximately sixty unknown burials marked with concrete markers — you start to feel the weight of all those lives that passed through Big Eye.
One of those graves belongs to a Civil War veteran. Most of the others, we simply don't know their names anymore. Time has kept that to itself.
And here's the thing that lands hardest about Big Eye Cemetery. The church is gone. The school is gone.
The community itself is gone. George Montgomery's log church, the school full of children, the neighbors who bought land and built lives on those 480 acres — all of it has faded from the earth. The cemetery is all that remains.
It is the last word Big Eye ever got to say.
What the marker says
George William Montgomery moved to Comanche County from Mississippi in 1855. In 1869, George and Nancy C. (Hicks) Montgomery purchased 480 acres in the Andrew Crier Survey from Jessie and Alice Mercer. George built a log church, which was also used for a school called "Big Eye." He was the community's school teacher, doctor and minister. Near the church was Big Eye Cemetery, established in 1872 with the last known burial in 1894. Measuring 150 feet on each side, the cemetery contains five marked graves, six unknown crypts in a row, and approximately sixty unknown burials marked with concrete markers. One grave is for a Civil War veteran. Big Eye Cemetery is all that remains of the community, church and school.