Coffman Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm gonna give it to you straight with a little room to breathe. This is Coffman Cemetery, out in Grayson County, and the story behind it starts not here in Texas but back in Missouri, during the long dark middle of the Civil War. David Harman Coffman, born in 1827, had gone off to serve in the Confederate army.

The years were 1861 through 1865, and while he was away, his wife Harriet, she went by Jones before she married him, packed up their four sons and made her way down to North Texas. Think about that for a moment. A woman, four boys, a new land, and a war still grinding somewhere in the distance.

They came from Missouri and they planted themselves right here. When the war ended, David came and found them, and together the family bought this land. Now, the ground had already started keeping its own records.

The earliest marked grave on this property was dated 1867. The land had already begun its quiet work. But David and Harriet weren't content to keep it just for themselves.

In 1878, the Coffmans deeded one full acre to the county, setting it aside as a public burial ground. And they weren't finished. The adjoining acre they gave over for a school and a meetinghouse, home to Mt.

Pleasant Baptist Church. Two acres, two gifts, a family that arrived with nothing but each other and ended up shaping the ground for a whole community. David Coffman lived until 1888.

And somewhere in this same cemetery, another man found his final rest. J. K.

Miller, called a pioneer in the marker, the man who owned the land on which Denison was laid out, he's buried here too. Two men, two stories, one quiet acre in Grayson County holding all of it.

What the marker says

While David Harman Coffman (1827-1888) served in the Confederate army during the Civil War (1861-1865), his wife Harriet (Jones) and four sons came to North Texas from Missouri. After the war David joined the family and they bought this land. Although the earliest marked grave was dated 1867, the Coffmans deeded the one-acre plot to the county for a public burial ground in 1878. They gave the adjoining acre for a school and meetinghouse for Mt. Pleasant Baptist Church. J. K. Miller, pioneer who owned land on which Denison was laid out, was buried here.