Burke Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and here's how I'm passing it along to you. Out on a patch of Tarrant County land, there's a half-acre that holds more than a century of one family's story — and it starts, as so many Texas tales do, with a woman who did what had to be done. Mary Burke — born an Overton, married to a man named Evan H.

Burke — arrived on this land in 1851. She didn't arrive alone. She brought her children.

She brought her widowed mother, Rachel Overton, born a Cameron. And she came to settle land that Evan himself had chosen, though Evan wasn't there to see it. He was already gone.

Mary came as his widow, to finish what he'd started. Now, that's a particular kind of courage, isn't it. Pulling up everything you know, moving to land your late husband picked out, and building a life there with your children and your mama beside you.

For sixteen years, that's exactly what she did. Then December 30th, 1867, came for Mary Burke. And here's where the story takes a turn that'll settle over you like cold air.

Two days later — just two days — Rachel Overton, her mother, followed her. December, 1867, claimed them both, one right behind the other. Mother and daughter, together in that ground the way they'd been together in this life.

Those were the first known burials in what would become the Burke family cemetery. The land itself wasn't formally set aside until March 12, 1900, when that half-acre was deeded specifically as a family burial ground. By then, there were already others resting there — Burkes, yes, but also members of the Magers family, the Overton family, and the Edwards family, all kin, all finding their way to this same piece of earth.

More than a hundred marked graves have been recorded here. And then there are the several unmarked ones — quiet presences, names the ground is keeping to itself. One half-acre.

More than a hundred souls, maybe more. It started with a widow honoring her husband's chosen land, and it grew into the resting place of a whole extended family, generation by generation. Mary Burke came here to build something lasting.

She did.

What the marker says

The first known burial in this graveyard was that of Mary (Overton) Burke, widow of Evan H. Burke, who came in 1851 with her children and widowed mother to settle this land previously chosen by her husband. Her death on Dec. 30, 1867, was followed two days later by that of her mother, Rachel (Cameron) Overton. On Mar. 12, 1900, this one-half acre of land was deeded as a family burial ground. Relatives of the Burkes include members of the Magers, Overton, and Edwards families. More than 100 marked and several unmarked graves have been recorded here. (1984)