Conner Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and here's how I'm passin' it along to you. Thomas Conner packed up his family in Illinois and pointed them south and west, settling in this stretch of Navarro County back in 1856. Now, that's a family that put down roots, deep ones, the kind that hold.

His son, Edward P. Conner, took things a step further in 1873, purchasing 164 acres right here. Land in hand, a name on a deed.

That's how a place becomes a place. The first recorded burial in Conner Cemetery is that of Minnie L. Conner, in 1882.

Same year, Edward Conner made it official, legally setting the cemetery aside. But here's the thing family tradition will tell you what courthouse records won't always say: the ground likely received its first souls before 1882. Earlier interments, the marker says.

Names and dates the record doesn't fully hold onto anymore. Among those laid to rest here are at least four veterans of the War Between the States. Four men who came through something enormous and came home to this land, and stayed.

Conner Cemetery continues to serve the community to this day, maintained by descendants of the very family that first broke ground here in 1856. Some places, it turns out, don't let go of a family. And some families don't let go of a place.

What the marker says

Thomas Conner and his family left Illinois and settled in this area in 1856. His son, Edward P., purchased 164 acres here in 1873. Though the first recorded burial was that of Minnie L. Conner in 1882, family tradition indicates the cemetery contains earlier interments. The cemetery was legally set aside by Edward Conner in 1882. It has primarily served the extended Conner family and contains the burials of at least four veterans of the War Between the States. The cemetery continues to serve the community and is maintained by Conner family descendants.