Campbell-Elrod Cemetery

Duane's take

The way I heard it, the marker out front tells the story, and here's my telling of it. Way back in 1855, a Navarro County pioneer by the name of David Wilson Campbell made a gift. Ten acres of land, handed over to the Harmony Methodist Church.

The arrangement was clear enough: part of that ground was to be set aside as a graveyard, and it would go by the name Campbell Cemetery. Simple, generous, the kind of thing a man does when he wants something to last. And last it did.

David Campbell himself was buried there in 1879, on the very land he had given away. There's something in that worth sitting with for a moment. The man who gave the ground became part of it.

Now, the land changed hands over the years. In 1908 it was conveyed to J. M. and Eunice Elrod.

But here's the thing about this particular piece of ground. The Elrods held it, and then in 1914 they gave the land containing the cemetery right back to the church. Back where it started, more or less.

That's how the name stretched out to Campbell-Elrod, carrying both families into the future. Out among those graves, some are marked, some are not. But the earliest burial that anyone has been able to document belongs to a child named Ensly Willis, born 1856, gone by 1859.

Three years on this earth, and a place in the oldest record this cemetery keeps. That little patch of Navarro County ground has been holding people's stories since before the Civil War. Some names carved in stone, some lost entirely.

And the ones who gave the land, the ones who passed it on and gave it back, they're woven into the name itself. Campbell-Elrod. Still standing.

Still keeping.

What the marker says

Land for this cemetery was given to the Harmony Methodist Church in 1855 by Navarro county pioneer David Wilson Campbell. Ten acres were donated to the church trustees, with part to be set aside as a graveyard and known as Campbell Cemetery. David Campbell was buried here in 1879. The land was conveyed to J. M. and Eunice Elrod in 1908. They gave the land containing the cemetery back to the church in 1914. Although there are some unmarked graves, the earliest documented burial is that of Ensly Willis (1856-1859). Texas Sesquicentennial 1836-1986