Cade Cemetery

Duane's take

The way I tell it, I'm drawing straight from the official marker on Cade Cemetery, so let me give it to you the way the record reads. Pull over if you need to, because some of these old burial grounds carry more story than you'd expect from a quiet stretch of Freestone County road. This one goes back to the days when a settlement called Cade was still something to be reckoned with.

The community took root near this site in the 1870s, straddling the line between southern Navarro County and northern Freestone County, and it carried the name of an early area resident, a man called Cade Hayes. That's how a patch of Texas farmland got a name that's still on the map, still on the stone, still worth saying out loud. Now the cemetery itself first received the dead in 1876, when a Mrs.

Nelson was buried here. She was the widowed sister of a Cade settler named Andrew Smith, and hers was the first. Seven years later, in 1883, a man named Ansel Coleman and his wife Alice made it official.

Ansel died that same year, 1883. Alice would follow him in 1910. But before Ansel Coleman passed, he and Alice deeded this very ground to trustees of the local Missionary Baptist Church, and not just for a cemetery.

The deed called for the establishment of a burial ground, the construction of a church building, and a Masonic Hall. Three things at once, from two people who understood that a community needs more than farmland to hold together. The earliest marked grave here belongs to John Watson.

He was born in 1882 and died in 1884. You do the math if you feel you must, but some things are better just held quiet. Then came the early 1900s, and with them came the railroad.

Or rather, the railroad did not come. Construction of a Trinity and Brazos rail line bypassed the area, and Cade began to decline in population. That is the kind of thing that can hollow out a place faster than drought or hard winters.

The church held on until 1932, and when it finally closed, the burial ground fell into neglect. The dead were here. The care was not.

That might have been the end of the story. But in 1947 a group of local women formed a cemetery association, and they got to work. One of their first projects was adding a frame chapel to the site.

They reorganized in 1966, and the association has kept faith with this ground ever since, gathering on the first Sunday of each June for an annual luncheon and business meeting. A Cade settler's name on the land. A widow's grave from 1876.

A deed signed by a dying man in 1883. And every June, somebody still shows up. That, friends, is how a place refuses to be forgotten.

What the marker says

This burial ground originally served the pioneer Cade community, which was established near this site in the 1870s. Named for Cade Hayes, an early area resident, the settlement included the surrounding farmland of southern Navarro County and northern Freestone County. The cemetery was first used in 1876 when a Mrs. Nelson, the widowed sister of Cade settler Andrew Smith, was buried here. Ansel Coleman (d. 1883) and his wife Alice (d. 1910), who are interred here, deeded the property to trustees of the local Missionary Baptist Church in 1883 for the establishment of the burial ground and for the construction of a church building and a Masonic Hall. The earliest marked grave is that of John Watson (b. 1882), who died in 1884. Cade began to decline in population in the early 1900s when construction of a Trinity and Brazos rail line bypassed the area. After the church closed in 1932 the burial ground was neglected until a group of local women formed a cemetery association in 1947. An early project of the organization was the addition of a frame chapel for the site. Reorganized in 1966, the association holds an annual luncheon and business meeting the first Sunday of each June.