Calloway Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll give it to you straight with a little Texas on the side. Out here in eastern Tarrant County, there's a piece of ground that's been holding memories longer than most folks can reckon. It's called Calloway Cemetery, and the story starts, as so many good ones do, with two brothers.

Joseph W. Calloway, born in 1829, and his younger brother Richard H. Calloway, born in 1832.

These two owned this land back in the 1860s, and when their time came, Joseph in 1877, Richard in 1874, they were laid to rest right here. Their marked graves are the earliest ones in the whole cemetery. Brothers in life, brothers in the ground.

There's a poetry to that you don't have to stretch to find. Now, Richard left behind a widow, Catherine (Catherine Coble before she took the Calloway name), and she did something that quietly changed the nature of this place forever. In 1886, she deeded one and a half acres of this land for use as a public burial ground.

Just like that, what had been a family cemetery, with a few neighbors already folded in, became something the whole community could claim. The original site carried all of them: family, neighbors, pioneers putting down roots in eastern Tarrant County. The grounds kept growin', kept gatherin'.

Then in 1908, a wooden Tabernacle was constructed on the site, giving the place a little more structure, a little more permanence. For decades after that, families tended the grounds themselves, showing up, keeping the grass back, keeping faith with the people underneath it. That went on until 1971, when a perpetual care fund was finally set up to carry the work forward.

Many pioneer settlers of eastern Tarrant County are buried here. Catherine Calloway deeded an acre and a half, and what grew from it was a place that holds an entire era. That's not a small thing.

That's the whole story of how a county remembers itself.

What the marker says

The earliest marked graves in this cemetery are those of two brothers, Richard H. Calloway (1832-1874) and Joseph W. Calloway (1829-1877), who owned this land in the 1860s. Richard's widow Catherine (Coble) deeded 1.5 acres here in 1886 for use as a public burial ground. The original site included the family cemetery and graves of several neighbors. The wooden Tabernacle was constructed in 1908. Families maintained the grounds until 1971 when a perpetual care fund was set up. Many pioneer settlers of eastern Tarrant County are buried here. (1980)