DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll pass it along best I can. Out here in McLennan County, the land has a long memory — and Concord Cemetery is just about all that's left to do the remembering. See, once upon a time there was a whole town out here called Concord.
It had a general store, a cotton gin, a school, and a church. A real going concern. Now the cemetery stands alone, holding onto every story the town ever had.
Let me back up and set the table properly. In 1866, the Concord Baptist Church organized in the Concord community. Went by a different name at first — the Tehuacana Baptist Church.
That name held until 1872, when it became the Concord Baptist Church. The church is gone now, same as the store, the gin, and the school. But the ground where neighbors buried their neighbors?
That ground remains. The first interments in that cemetery — and this one'll stop you cold if you let it — were Elizabeth Boddie Parrish and her triplets, laid to rest in November of 1869. Four souls at once.
You don't rush past that. You sit with it a moment. The cemetery filled up over the years with many veterans, men who had answered their country's call and came home to McLennan County soil at the end of it all.
And then there is Elija Goodnight, born in 1831, died in 1920. The marker says he is considered the last veteran of the U.S.-Mexico War to be buried in Texas. The last one.
Think about what that means — a whole chapter of American history, and when it finally closed, it closed right here. Now, if you're thinking you'd like to one day rest among such company, the cemetery bylaws have something to say about that. You must be a direct descendant of a person already buried at Concord.
This ground belongs to those who came from those who came before. The town of Concord is gone, but it turns out it never really let go of its own.
What the marker says
In 1866 the Concord Baptist Church organized in the Concord community. Originally the Tehuacana Baptist Church, its name was changed in 1872. The first interments in the adjacent cemetery were Elizabeth Boddie Parrish and her triplets in November 1869. The cemetery is all that is left of the town of Concord, which once had a general store, cotton gin, school, and a church. Many veterans are interred on the grounds. Elija Goodnight (1831-1920) is considered the last veteran of the U.S.-Mexico War to be buried in Texas. According to the cemetery bylaws, one must be a direct descendant of a person buried at Concord in order to be interred on the grounds.