Corinth Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker at Corinth Cemetery has to say — and friend, this one's got layers. Out in Van Zandt County, there's a piece of ground that's been holding onto its stories since before most folks around here can remember. Corinth Cemetery, they call it.

And the land it sits on? First deeded in 1886 by a man named James Richardson — born in 1814, gone in 1887 — on whose very land grant the Corinth community had taken root and grown. Over the years, families kept giving a little more ground to the graveyard.

The D. D. Richardson family.

The Olivers, the Carrolls, the Davises. Good land, given over to memory. Now, the oldest legible tombstone in that cemetery carries a death date of January 14th, 1874.

Legible being the key word there. See, many of the headstones have weathered and deteriorated past reading, and others — well, others have simply disappeared over the years. Some of the earliest burial sites weren't marked with carved stone at all.

Just fieldstones pressed into the earth, or cedar trees planted as quiet, growing monuments. That's the kind of thing that makes you stop and stand still for a moment. Six known Civil War veterans are buried in that ground.

Six. And scattered through the cemetery you'll find the family names that built the Corinth community — Crestman, Yoes, Rawson, King, Cox, and Blair. Names that show up on headstones and in the memory of the place both.

But here's where the story shifts register on you — because Corinth Cemetery is also the resting place of the family of Wiley Post. Wiley Post, born in 1898, gone in 1935, renowned aviator. He grew up right there in the Corinth community.

Attended the Baptist Church. And the people who raised him, shaped him, watched him — his mother, his father, his brother, his grandparents — they're all buried in that cemetery. His grandfather was the Reverend Thomas M.

Post, born in 1843, died in 1931. A well-known circuit preacher. A man who founded many area churches and served as an early pastor of the Corinth Baptist fellowship.

The kind of man whose footprints you can still find all over a region if you know where to look. So you've got a cemetery that stretches from cedar-marked pioneer graves to a circuit preacher's legacy to the family of a man who would one day climb higher than almost anyone before him. And through all of it, those Van Zandt County families kept giving the land, tending the ground, planting the cedars.

Some places hold more than the people buried in them. Corinth Cemetery is one of those places.

What the marker says

Land for this cemetery was first deeded in 1886 by James Richardson (1814-1887), on whose land grant the Corinth community had developed. Over the years, additional acreage for the graveyard has been given by members of the D. D. Richardson, Oliver, Carroll, and Davis families. The oldest legible tombstone in the Corinth Cemetery bears a death date of Jan. 14, 1874. Many of the headstones have weathered and deteriorated so that they are illegible, while others have disappeared over the years. Some of the early burial sites were marked only with fieldstones or by the planting of Cedar trees. Six known Civil War veterans are buried here. Early settlers in the Corinth community whose family names are common in the cemetery are Crestman, Yoes, Rawson, King, Cox, and Blair. Renowned aviator Wiley Post (1898-1935) grew up in the Corinth community and attended the Baptist Church. Several members of his family, including his mother, father, brother, and grandparents, are buried in the Corinth Cemetery. His grandfather, the Rev. Thomas M. Post (1843-1931), a well-known circuit preacher, founded many area churches and served as an early pastor of the Corinth Baptist fellowship. Texas Sesquicentennial 1836-1986