Davidson Cemetery

Duane's take

The official marker for Davidson Cemetery in Coryell County is the source of this story, and I'm going to do it justice. Now, some men leave a mark on a place, and some men leave a whole community. James Madison Davidson, who went by Matt, appears to have been the latter kind.

Matt Davidson was born in 1826, and he came to Texas from Tennessee in 1852, settling in what was then Milam territory. Two years after arriving, in 1854, he and Vianna Moore became the second couple ever issued a marriage license in Coryell County, which had itself only recently been carved out of that same Milam territory. Second couple.

Not the first, mind you, but close enough that you could say this family was in on the ground floor. After the Civil War, after serving in the Confederate Army, Matt Davidson came home and did what a man does. He bought land on Coryell Creek.

He built a log cabin for his family. And on a stretch of land overlooking that homestead, a community cemetery quietly took root. The earliest marked grave there belongs to S.

R. Bailey, in 1862. That's worth sitting with for a moment.

The Civil War was still being fought. Matt Davidson himself may still have been away serving. And yet people were already being laid to rest on that hill.

Many burials, including several for small children, took place in the years that followed, before the graveyard's location was even formally described in a land survey. That didn't happen until the 1890s. The dead were being remembered long before the paperwork caught up.

Around that cemetery, a community grew. Schools called Blackfoot and Davidson. A post office known as Pecan Grove.

Businesses, churches, homes. The graveyard itself went by two names, Davidson Cemetery and also the Blackfoot Cemetery. A place with two names tends to be a place that means something to a lot of different people.

More than six hundred graves now rest on those grounds. Veterans buried there served in wars stretching from the Civil War all the way through the Vietnam War. That is a long span of American history held in one quiet piece of Coryell County.

Vianna Moore Davidson lived until 1912. Matt Davidson lived until 1925, born in 1826. He outlasted almost everyone who would have known him as a young man fresh from Tennessee.

The Davidson Cemetery Association was established in 1985 to maintain the grounds. Then in 1988, a Davidson descendant donated two acres of land, adding to the original six-acre graveyard and giving the place room to keep doing what it has always done. Because that's the thing about this cemetery.

It isn't past tense. The marker tells us plainly: the cemetery continues to serve the area. Matt Davidson built a log cabin on Coryell Creek, and more than a century and a half later, the land overlooking that homestead is still where the community brings its dead.

That's not just history. That's roots.

What the marker says

James Madison (Matt) Davidson (1826-1925) came to Texas from Tennessee in 1852 and settled in Milam territory. In 1854 Matt Davidson and Vianna Moore (1832-1912) were the second couple issued a marriage license in Coryell County, formerly Milam territory. After serving in the Confederate Army during the Civil War, Davidson bought land on Coryell Creek and built a log cabin there for his family. Land overlooking the Davidson homestead became the community cemetery. The earliest marked grave is that of S. R. Bailey in 1862. Many burials, including several for small children, took place before the graveyard location was described in a land survey in the 1890's. The community that grew around the cemetery included the Blackfoot and Davidson Schools, the Pecan Grove Post Office, businesses, churches and homes. The graveyard was also called the Blackfoot Cemetery. Among the more than 600 graves are those of veterans of wars from the Civil War through the Vietnam War. The Davidson Cemetery Association was established in 1985 to maintain the grounds. Two acres of land donated in 1988 by a Davidson descendant were added to the original six-acre graveyard. The cemetery continues to serve the area. (1997)