Colony Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Colony Cemetery, out in Fayette County. Now, there are places in Texas where the land itself holds memory, and this is one of them. Back in the 1870s, a community called Colony took shape, settled by folks who had made their way here from Mississippi.

And they didn't come empty-handed. They brought enough ambition with them to build not one, not two, but three churches. They raised up several stores.

They got themselves a post office. Colony was, for a time, a real going concern. Then, in 1876, a man named John A.

Young and his wife Margaret made a decision that would outlast just about everything else that community ever built. They donated a piece of land right here for a Methodist church and a cemetery. The church, well, churches can come and go.

But a cemetery, that tends to stay. And this one became the primary burial ground for the whole Colony community. The oldest documented grave belongs to a Methodist minister by the name of Samuel J.

Brown, born in 1813, died in 1879. A man of the cloth, laid to rest in ground set aside, in part, for his very faith. Around him, the years filled in quietly.

Pioneer settlers. Infants and children, which is always the part of old graveyards that stops you cold. Military veterans.

Generation after generation of Colony folks, finding their final place in the earth that John A. and Margaret Young saw fit to give. The stores are gone. The post office is gone.

But out here in Fayette County, that cemetery is still keeping the story.

What the marker says

The Colony community, settled in the 1870s by former residents of Mississippi, at one time included three churches, several stores, and a post office. John A. and Margaret Young donated land at this site in 1876 for a Methodist church and cemetery. The graveyard became the primary burial ground for the community. The oldest documented grave is that of Methodist minister Samuel J. Brown (1813-1879). Also interred here are numerous other pioneer settlers, infants and children, and military veterans. The cemetery serves as a reflection of the area's pioneer heritage.