Ebenezer Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Ebenezer Cemetery, out here in Rusk County. Somewhere in the mid 1800s, people started putting down roots on what is now FM 3310. Families came, cleared land, built lives.

By 1884, the little settlement had a name: the Mansinger Neighborhood. But names, like communities, have a way of growing into something new. A church organized.

A school organized. And with that, the place became the Ebenezer Community. Now, most of those early families were working people in the truest sense of the word.

Agriculture, ranching, sharecropping. The kind of work that asks everything of you and doesn't always say please. And as communities grow, they also grieve.

Every town that lasts long enough eventually needs a place to lay its own to rest. The first known burial at Ebenezer Cemetery belongs to Julia Kitchens, in 1886. That's where the count begins.

The people who followed her into that ground tell the story of a whole region. Pioneer families who shaped what this part of Texas became. United States veterans, some of whom had lived through the Civil War.

Members of the Masons. Members of the Woodmen of the World. Generation upon generation, resting beneath crepe myrtles, roses, and cedar trees, in a setting the marker calls rural, which is a polite way of saying quiet, and still, and serious.

Here's the part that stays with you. Ebenezer Cemetery isn't just a record of the past. It continues to serve as a final resting place for the descendants of those early pioneers.

The families that started on FM 3310 are still coming home to this ground. Some places hold history. This one keeps it.

What the marker says

EBENEZER CEMETERY IN THE MID 1800s, A COMMUNITY WAS FORMED ON WHAT IS NOW FM 3310. BY 1884, IT WAS CALLED THE MANSINGER NEIGHBORHOOD BUT WAS CHANGED TO THE EBENEZER COMMUNITY AFTER A CHURCH AND SCHOOL ORGANIZED. MOST OF THE EARLY FAMILIES WERE INVOLVED IN AGRICULTURE, RANCHING AND SHARECROPPING. THE CEMETERY BEGAN WITH THE FIRST KNOWN BURIAL BELONGING TO JULIA KITCHENS IN 1886. THOSE BURIED HERE ARE PIONEER FAMILIES, U.S. VETERANS DATING FROM THE CIVIL WAR, MASONS AND WOODMEN OF THE WORLD. EBENEZER CEMETERY IS SITUATED IN A RURAL SETTING WITH CREPE MYRTLES, ROSES AND CEDAR TREES. THE CEMETERY CONTINUES TO SERVE AS A FINAL RESTING PLACE FOR THE DESCENDANTS OF EARLY PIONEERS. HISTORIC TEXAS CEMETERY - 2009