Cornett Cemetery

Duane's take

The way I tell it, I'm going by what the official marker says, so here's the story of Cornett Cemetery, straight from the record. Now, out in Cass County, there's a patch of ground that's been holding people's memories since the 1850s. That's when the first burials happened here, before there was much of a name for the place, before there was much of anything, really.

People were laid to rest, and the land kept quiet about it. The oldest stone you can still read marks the grave of Mary Frances Hampton, who died October 4, 1880. Whatever names and dates came before hers have been worn smooth by time.

Hers is the one that held on. The land itself came together through the generosity of neighbors. Robert Dunlap donated nine acres, and that ground served both the cemetery and the adjacent Hamell's Chapel Methodist Church.

Others followed his lead. G. T.

Cornett and S. E. McCord gave land.

Fred and Sallie Hall gave land. Mr. and Mrs. Jonas Trumble gave land.

A community burial ground takes more than grief to keep going. It takes people willing to give something lasting. The place went by several names over the years.

Communities have a way of drifting through names like that, trying one on, setting it down, picking up another. But in 1901, Cornett Post Office was established, and when the post office settled on a name, the cemetery settled with it. Cornett it became, and Cornett it stayed.

Today, that ground holds about two hundred ninety-five marked graves and a hundred and ten unmarked ones. Four hundred and five known spots where someone's story ended. The marked ones at least carry a name, a date, some small proof they were here.

The unmarked ones carry only the quiet. And somewhere in the middle of all that quiet, Mary Frances Hampton's stone still stands, the oldest one anyone can read, keeping its date the way only stone can.

What the marker says

The first burials here were in the 1850s, but the oldest legible stone marks the grave of Mary Frances Hampton, who died Oct. 4, 1880. Robert Dunlap donated nine acres of land to the cemetery and to adjacent Hamell's Chapel Methodist Church. Other donors of land included G. T. Cornett and S. E. McCord, Fred and Sallie Hall, and Mr. and Mrs. Jonas Trumble. Known by several names during its history, the community burial ground was renamed "Cornett" after Cornett Post Office was established in 1901. The cemetery contains about 295 marked and 110 unmarked graves.