Chalk Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, as best as Duane can carry it to you. Out in Walker County, there's a piece of ground that's been holding secrets longer than anyone can say for certain. They call it Chalk Cemetery, and that name comes straight from the geology of the land itself, the chalky character of the earth beneath your feet.

The land belonged to a man named Lacy Harrington, and sometime in the 1870s, a cemetery took root on his property. Now, the earliest burial they can document with any confidence is that of a Civil War veteran, Barney Carroll, born in 1835 and laid to rest in 1880. His is the oldest name they can put a finger on.

But here's the thing. Local oral tradition whispers about older graves, unmarked ones, resting out there without a stone to speak for them. Nobody can prove it.

Nobody can disprove it either. The ground keeps what the ground keeps. For more than a hundred years, this cemetery served the Kittrell community, and Kittrell in its prime was no small thing.

That community once had a post office, a school, a church, a blacksmith shop, a general store, a cotton gin, and a grist mill. A whole world, right there. Much of that has gone quiet now, but the cemetery endures.

In 1971, folks formed a cemetery association to make sure it stays that way, tending the historic graveyard and keeping faith with everyone resting beneath that chalky Walker County soil. Barney Carroll, a soldier who survived a war, came home, and found his final peace here. The unmarked ones before him, whoever they were, they're here too.

And the ground, patient as ever, isn't telling.

What the marker says

Founded in the 1870s on land owned by Lacy Harrington, this cemetery takes its name from the geologic features of the area. The earliest documented burial is that of Civil War veteran Barney Carroll (1835-1880), although local oral tradition suggests the existence of older, unmarked graves. For more than 100 years, the cemetery has served the Kittrell community, which once boasted a post office, school, church, blacksmith shop, general store, cotton gin, and grist mill. A cemetery association, formed in 1971, maintains the historic graveyard. Historic Texas Cemetery - 2008