Dothan Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker at Dothan Cemetery has to say, and it's more of a story than you might expect from a patch of Eastland County ground. Settle in. The Texas and Pacific Railway built the Delmar Depot near this very spot in 1880.

A railroad depot, out here in the rolling Texas distance, was the kind of thing that could turn open land into a whole world overnight. But rail activity has a way of moving on, and move on it did, shifting over to Red Gap, the place that would later be known as Cisco. So the depot era faded, and you might think that'd be the end of it.

It wasn't. A new community rose up in its place, and they called it Dothan. By 1902, Dothan had earned itself a post office, which in those days was as close to official recognition as a small Texas town could get.

Now, before any of that happened, a couple named Jim and Manirval Dunaway, she went by Short, had already put down roots here in 1886. They believed in this land. And at some point, believing in a place means giving something of yourself to it permanently.

The Dunaways donated a parcel of that land for a community cemetery. The first burial came in 1905, and here is where the story gets quiet and heavy. That first grave belonged to Carroll Leo Dunaway, their great-grandson.

A family that helped build a place, watching it receive one of its youngest. Dothan kept growin after that. There was a school, there were stores, and by 1915 the town reported a population of fifty souls.

Not a big number, but fifty people is a neighborhood, a handshake, a shared understanding of who you are and where you belong. The school closed in 1940, and towns without schools have a way of fading at the edges. Dothan faded.

But the cemetery remained, tended all along by family and friends who never stopped showing up. Walk through it today and you'll find granite markers, limestone markers, fieldstone markers, each one a different way of saying the same thing. There's a wire perimeter fence holding it all together, and at least twenty-two veterans' graves inside those lines.

Twenty-two people from this tiny corner of Eastland County who went off to serve. In 1989, the Dothan Cemetery Association formed with the express purpose of preserving what they called a historic vestige of a rural community. That phrase carries some weight if you let it.

A vestige. Not a ruin, not a relic, but a living remnant, still cared for, still counted, still here. The town of Dothan is mostly memory now.

But the cemetery association is still meeting, and the grass is still cut, and that wire fence is still standing. Some things, it turns out, outlast the railroad.

What the marker says

THE TEXAS AND PACIFIC RAILWAY BUILT THE DELMAR DEPOT NEAR HERE IN 1880 BEFORE RAIL ACTIVITY SHIFTED TO RED GAP (LATER CISCO). A NEW COMMUNITY NAMED DOTHAN FORMED AND GAINED A POST OFFICE IN 1902. JIM AND MANIRVAL (SHORT) DUNAWAY, WHO SETTLED HERE IN 1886, DONATED LAND FOR A COMMUNITY CEMETERY. THE FIRST BURIAL WAS THEIR GREAT-GRANDSON, CARROLL LEO DUNAWAY, IN 1905. DOTHAN INCLUDED A SCHOOL AND STORES AND BY 1915 REPORTED A POPULATION OF FIFTY. THE SCHOOL CLOSED IN 1940. FAMILY AND FRIENDS HAVE ALWAYS MAINTAINED THE CEMETERY, WHICH FEATURES GRANITE, LIMESTONE AND FIELDSTONE GRAVE MARKERS, A WIRE PERIMETER FENCE, AND AT LEAST 22 VETERANS" GRAVES. THE DOTHAN CEMETERY ASSOCIATION FORMED IN 1989 TO PRESERVE THIS HISTORIC VESTIGE OF A RURAL COMMUNITY.