Cox Cemetery

Duane's take

The way I tell it, I'm drawing straight from the official marker record on this one. Pull up a log and listen close. Out in Limestone County, on a stretch of ground that's seen a good long piece of Texas history, sits Cox Cemetery.

And the story behind it starts, as so many Texas stories do, with a family making their way to a new place after hard times. Obediah Cox was an Arkansas native. He and his wife Angeline, born a Glover, came to the Ferguson Prairie community, also known as Old Union, in 1864.

That was following his service in the Civil War. Now, they didn't arrive to easy living. They arrived to work, to land, to a community they were going to help build.

Angeline didn't live to see all of it. After her death, Obediah wed her sister, Eliza, and together they bought up several tracts of land in the area, including the very property at this site. And that detail matters, because Angeline had already been laid to rest right here.

She is the first marked burial in the cemetery, dating to February of 1870. But the marker is careful to note that family records, along with unidentified graves, suggest the possibility of earlier interments. This ground may have been holding quiet memory longer than anyone can now prove.

As the years went on, more families came to rest here. Grave markers tell their own stories: military veterans are among those buried here, including some who served in the Civil War. Members of the Masonic lodge and the Order of the Eastern Star are here too.

And the family names associated with this place read like a roll call of the old community: Hastings, Herod, White, Wright, Henderson, Glover, Yarbrough, Hunter, Brown, Lewis, Roberts, and Unfried, alongside the Cox name itself. Today the graveyard is maintained by a community cemetery association. And here is the part that just might stick with you: since the 1880s, area residents have held an annual memorial at this site.

Every year. Descendants and relatives gathering to reunite, to celebrate families, friends, neighbors, and the rich history of the area. That's not just a cemetery.

That's a living tradition rooted in ground that remembers nearly every name it holds. And every year, somebody shows up to make sure it isn't forgotten.

What the marker says

Cox Cemetery Arkansas native Obediah Cox and his wife Angeline (Glover) settled in the Ferguson Prairie (Old Union) community in 1864, following his service in the Civil War. After Angeline's death, Cox wed her sister, Eliza, and they bought several tracts of land in the area, including property at this site, where Angeline was buried. Hers is the first marked burial, dating to February 1870, but family records, as well as unidentified graves, indicate the possibility of earlier interments. Grave markers indicate that military veterans, including some from the Civil War, and members of the Masonic lodge and the Order of the Eastern Star, are among those buried here. In addition to Cox, early area family names associated with the cemetery include Hastings, Herod, White, Wright, Henderson, Glover, Yarbrough, Hunter, Brown, Lewis, Roberts and Unfried. The graveyard today is maintained by a community cemetery association. Since the 1880s, area residents have held an annual memorial, which gives descendants and relatives opportunities to reunite and to celebrate families, friends, neighbors and the area's rich history. Historic Texas Cemetery - 2002