Christian Church Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll pass it along just as it reads. Out here in Washington County, there's a piece of ground that's been holding stories a good while longer than most folks realize. They called it McClellan's Settlement, named for a man by the name of William B.

McClellan, who ran a store and a gin right here on this spot. Where there's a settlement, there's community, and where there's community, somebody's going to organize a church. That happened in 1876, out at the McClellan Schoolhouse, when a congregation came together under what would later be called Bethany Christian Church.

Three years on, they dedicated a proper chapel at this very site. Now, a chapel needs a cemetery, and a cemetery needs a first soul. That came in 1877, when George McCausland was laid to rest here.

He'd been born in 1863, and he was the brother of Eleanor McCausland Barham, a woman the marker remembers as a benefactor of that church. His burial was the first. The congregation kept growing, kept gathering, until 1913, when they renamed themselves First Christian and moved south, down to Burton, five miles that direction.

But here's the part worth sitting with. They moved on. The town moved on.

Time moved on. And yet that congregation never stopped caring for this Pioneer Cemetery. The people buried here are still looked after, still remembered.

William B. McClellan built a settlement. A church took root.

And the roots held.

What the marker says

This burial ground originally served the early residents of McClellan's Settlement, named for William B. McClellan who operated a store and gin here. A church, later called Bethany Christian Church, was organized at the McClellan Schoolhouse in 1876. Three years later a chapel was dedicated at this site. The church cemetery was first used in 1877 for the burial of George McCausland (b. 1863), brother of church benefactor Eleanor (McCausland) Barham. The congregation, renamed First Christian, moved to Burton (5 mi. S) in 1913, but continues to care for the Pioneer Cemetery.